Metallurgy
by BeeeTeee
Summary: In which Izuku gets a quirk naturally and Katsumi Bakugo is too introspective for her own good. Fem!Katsuki Quirk!Izuku
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Why hello there, its been a long time since I've posted anything on ffn! But here I am and in a new fandom too. I've been pretty much devouring as much bnha fanfiction as possible since I caught up with the manga. Writing this pairing in particular was inspired by the story 'Total Command' by Epsilon110, so if you haven't read that yet then check it out. They're a much better writer than I am.**

**On another note, I have around 40k words of this story written and plan to release it in arcs to avoid feeling pressured by a schedule. So depending on the response I might end up just posting the whole arc at once. At which point I'll take as much time as I need to finish the second arc and start posting that when it's done, then the third and so on…**

**As with my other novel-length fic I prefer to write older characters to deal with scenes of a mature nature, so this will be an AU where UA is a University instead of a highschool. The only thing this changes is that every relevant character was born three years earlier. Every event that happened before cannon occurs at roughly the same time unless otherwise stated, ie. All Might was injured the same amount of time before the main cast attends UA.**

**Also! Characters may be highly OOC, this is a combination of my inability to write children accurately, as well as Katsumi simply being a different person than her canon counterpart. If she acted exactly the same as Bakugo does in the manga then I'd never be able to write a romance between them.**

**Enjoy.**

**Metallurgy**

Prologue

Katsumi Bakugo had been a prodigy in every sense of the word, and by some twist of fate, was also my best friend.

Showing hints of unparalleled skill even at a young age, no one ever hesitated to tell her how lucky she was to be so talented, that she was so _blessed_. Most agreed that she would go far.

They were so blind.

Blind to the hours spent with scrunched eyebrows, diligently copying Kanji until they were _just right_. Oblivious to the scrapes and bruises from doggedly scaling to the tallest point on our preschool's jungle gym until she could do it with her eyes closed. All our classmates cared about was that Kacchan was the first in the class to make it up there in the first place.

It came as no surprise when at the age of four Katsumi ignited a classmate's shirt as she shoved him away in a schoolyard scuffle.

Well the situation _itself_ was surprising. Even in a world full of superpowers, spontaneous combustion was usually cause for alarm.

But after calming a screaming toddler, no one was surprised that the fiery blond had developed a quirk to match her personality.

The soft pops and cracks of the sparks that danced across her palms had been beyond mesmerizing to me at the time. It had only cemented Kacchan's place as the coolest girl ever in my mind.

The reality was less elegant, but no less impressive.

She could secrete a substance from her sweat glands that performed much like nitroglycerin. Aside from the fact that it could be remotely detonated with a mere _thought._

It was a near flawless amalgamation of her parent's quirks, seemingly engineered in its efficiency. Aunty Mitsuki could secrete glycerin from her skin, a comically innocuous abililty considering how similar the woman was to her daughter, but when paired with her husband's ability to oxidize his sweat, the result was… _explosive_.

Katsumi wasn't the first of our small class to develop her powers, but hers was undoubtedly the flashiest. A quirk with power and versatility piled into a convenient little package.

A hero's quirk.

Kacchan could be brash, short-fused and downright confrontational on her _best_ day, but she would undoubtedly put it to good use.

Once she'd stopped accidentally lighting her assignments on fire.

Weeks passed, and one by one, the children in our small daycare started developing their quirk, every ability fascinatingly unique, yet none with the same raw potential as Kacchan's.

There were only a handful of us who had yet to manifest our quirk. I'd always wondered if their heads were plagued with the same dark thoughts as mine had been. It'd been reported that one fifth of the current world population was quirkless, but many of that number were the elderly of the previous generation.

The probability of being quirkless nowadays was incredibly unlikely. Highly improbable but not entirely impossible.

Katsumi and I drifted apart when it became apparent that my quirk wasn't showing up any time soon. Not that I really had any say in the matter, it was a miracle that she gave me the time of day in the first place.

At least that's what I thought at the time.

For months I satiated my hunger for learning about quirks by following the pros through online sites like heroTV, having already meticulously studied my classmate's abilities. I eventually learned to write myself, channeling my obsession, (and my frustration) into the very first volume of 'Hero Analysis for the future'.

But as fascinated as I was with the quirks of others, nothing would replace having one of my very own. The weeks passed and I felt the chasm between my best friend and I only grow wider.

I feared that I would be cursed with a label that would seal my fate for life. That I _couldn't _walk at Katsumi's side. That I _wouldn't_ be gifted with the power to be a hero.

Until one day_, _I_ was_.

Chapter One

oooOo Izuku oOooo

It was a clear spring morning and Midoriya Izuku had just begun his first year of primary school. The young child sat huddled in the space between a scuffed metal equipment shed and the fence that ran the length of the small elementary school's yard. It was a hiding spot easily overlooked, but being a boy of small stature, slipping into the tight space was easy as pie.

The reason he was hiding? Because he was a villain of course!

Well… he was _playing_ a villain. The game was pretty much the main attraction for recess at Aldera primary school. Kids miming their favorite heroes' special moves chased down others who did their best 'evil villain' laughs. Such was the nature of a superpowered society. Letting children chase each other around the yard like maniacs was already tempting fate as it is, add in rapidly developing quirks and the control of emotionally unstable almost five-year-olds and you have a recipe for chaos.

To say Fubuki-sensei wasn't quite as strict as she could have been about quirk usage during recess would be a gross understatement. But you really couldn't blame the woman. If teachers were underpaid _before_ the quirk revolution, then what were they now?

Izuku smiled lightly at the distant staccato cracks of Kacchan's quirk at work. A few months and she was already propelling herself around with small explosions like she'd been doing it for years. He wondered how all their friends missed the slight burn marks around her hands while they praised her acrobatic displays. Izuku knew for a _fact_ that her body was resistant to her own explosions, it was one of the first thing's he'd noted on Kacchan's hero page. To think she would injure herself practicing in spite of that. Her dedication was frightening, and yet Izuku couldn't help but admire her with the same wide-eyed joy he had when they were younger.

"Oi… Deku," a voice said from behind.

Ah! He'd been found.

One offhand comment from Kacchan about the characters in his name and some of the crueler kids in their class had latched on to the insult with vicious glee. Being the last in the class without a quirk didn't help make many friends so the name stuck.

Izuku was sure she'd never even meant anything by it, but as perceptive as the young boy was, deciphering Katsumi's various glares was a skill he was still working on. She'd been… different lately.

Had she finally given up on hanging out with the quirkless loser?

"Oi, Deku! What the hell is this thing?" the voice said with a bit more heat.

Izuku flinched away from the voice and turned to see that it was Endo, one of the friends he'd run around with in the past before their quirks had complicated everything.

The taller boy's attention was not on Izuku as he initially thought, but instead poking his spindly, elongated fingers into… what _was_ that?

Confusion came first. Endo-kun's quirk was long-fingers, not the most inventive name but that was to be expected as Izuku always thought the boy was a few crayons short of a full box.

But if this wasn't his then—

"It's finally happened." The words ghosted past his lips as he stared in wonder at the orb of shifting metal floating before his very eyes. It was around the size of a baseball, and bobbed and weaved through the air as if riding the waves of his disbelief. Izuku had never seen anything quite like it before, not in all his time spent analyzing quirks. His shoulders somehow managed to sag in relief and straighten with confidence simultaneously. It would be fair to say that he didn't know quite _what _to think.

He felt a tingling warmth starting to radiate from his gut. Was this what the other kids all felt? Could he be a hero that inspired people by the mere mention of his name? The orb shivered in response, sunlight refracting over its pearlescent surface.

Izuku paused, noting the odd behavior. Was it a response to his mood? He'd have to add that to the tests. So much to do! Could it be controlled? What was it made of? Is ther—"

"Hey look! Useless's got himself a quirk." The shout cut through Izuku's habitual rambling, and a spike of fear shot through the young boy. Most of the class had gathered around from the disturbance, and in his experience being the center of attention never ended well.

"Woah!" gasped a student with gills and webbed ears.

"Way cool! What's it do?" yelled another boy with an extra arm growing over his right shoulder.

The others began shouting over each other, all clambering to get a look at the spectacle.

Izuku shrunk slightly as the voices blended together, the many students starting to yell over each other. But this was _loads _better than the hushed whispers and careless words he'd endured for the last few months.

He shot a sidelong glance at Katsumi who had stayed surprisingly quiet. Her startlingly crimson eyes widened slightly as they moved from the orb floating timidly by Izuku's side before meeting his own. She glanced away immediately with feigned indifference, but Izuku had known the girl long enough to see the interest hidden beneath the surface. There was something else there as well, something he couldn't quite identify.

"Settle down, children," Fubuki-sensei chided with the patience of a saint. She turned to the green haired child, "Congratulations, Izuku, it seems you were just a late bloomer after all! Why don't you show the class your quirk!"

He faltered a for a moment under the intense scrutiny. "I… uh, I just now saw it myself so I don't really kno—"

"Can you make it move?!" shouted a boy in the back.

A flush spread across freckled cheeks. He just now got his quirk and they already wanted some kind of demonstration?

He furrowed his brows in concentration, hoping, _pleading_, for the wobbling orb of liquid metal to do something, _anything_. But no matter what he tried, from screaming commands in his head to gesturing wildly with his hands, the orb remained almost mockingly still. Having to perform on the spot wasn't really helping matters, but Izuku was certainly convinced by this point that his own quirk had it out for him.

Embarrassment was joined by shame as all Izuku's classmates all quickly lost interest.

Katsumi hesitated for a moment, that same, unreadable look on her face. Was she angry at him? Disappointed?

The girl's chaotic platinum blonde hair shook slightly as she finally turned away with a dismissive "Tch!"

He wouldn't lie, seeing her walk away so casually stung. He had held some hope that some of their friendship remained, especially now that he had a quirk, but it figured someone of her caliber wouldn't have wanted to be friends with someone like him.

His classmate's reactions might have crushed someone of weaker will, but Midoriya Izuku was _going_ _to be_ a hero. _That_ was indisputable.

And now… now he had a quirk of his own. For nearly half a year he'd done nothing besides analyzing unique abilities, if there was one thing he was confident in, it was figuring out his own.

He strode back to the classroom with as much poise as his near five-year-old frame could manage. Izuku yanked out Hero Analysis for the Future, Volume One and turned to the first blank page. With a manic determination he wrote in bold, black letters across the top of the page.

**Subject: Midoriya Izuku**

**Quirk: Quicksteel**

ooOo Katsumi oOoo

"Shit shit shit **SHIT**!"

A harsh _crack _and a gout of flames licked harmlessly at the fire-retardant walls of the Bakugo residence, but the concussive force of Katsumi's rage rattled the windows of the small home.

"Oi Brat! The _fuck_ did I say about explosions in the house!?" came the incensed yell of her mother from down the hall.

"Shut up you old hag," the girl grumbled under her breath.

"What was that?!"

"Love you, mother dearest."

Of all the skills she'd picked up in her short life, sarcasm was one of her favorites. It was perfect for covering up how much her Mom's inhuman hearing unnerved her. Bakugo Mitsuki certainly didn't need a quirk to be terrifying.

Katsumi had just arrived home after an _eventful_ day at her primary school, and perhaps trying to burn her house down wasn't the most logical reaction to said events.

But damn it she was _pissed._

She so was so _close_ to getting the stupid nerd to stop throwing his life away.

She _knew_ Izuku had the heart of the hero. Of _course_ she did. Having spent the greater part of their childhoods together how could she miss his selfless nature. How kind he was to people even at the expense of his own happiness.

Katsumi recalled the very last time they'd hung out together. How he'd choked down his least favorite flavor of snack mix, just so she could have the spicy miso flavor. And how did she repay him?

A wave of guilt washed over her as she recalled the state of her friendship with the kind boy.

But she also knew how his kindness would get him killed one day.

Even being labeled a prodigy from a young age Katsumi had no illusions to the kind of life a hero lead. Hell, it was what had attracted her to being one in the first place. That, and the enthusiasm of a wide-eyed, green-haired kid that looked at her like she was the next All Might.

Constantly throwing yourself headlong into danger with no regard for your own safety was the life of a hero. The best heroes always came out on top.

But some didn't. If you didn't have the _power_ to back up all that self-sacrifice, then what was the damn point?

As the weeks passed and Izuku's quirklessness seemed more inevitable, Katsumi's belief was only strengthened. She knew even being quirkless wouldn't put a stop to the boy's ambition. His selflessness was only matched by his stubborn streak a mile long.

"He'd probably have just called it a 'setback,'" Katsumi scoffed.

She stomped into her room before flopping to her bed in a heap.

"Why won't you just give up… Deku?" she sighed. The name tasted bitter on her tongue, a careless comment turned into a cruel taunt reused endlessly by their peers.

She was still learning her Kanji back then dammit!

Regret stabbed at her thinking back on how she'd been treating her friend these past few months. Where they were once inseparable, there was now a wide chasm between them. All her fault of course. She couldn't bare to take part in the bullying, but standing by while it happened, while her wonderful, selfless nerd of a best friend was harassed by their reject classmates, was just as bad if not worse.

Her palms crackled along with her agitation, the destructive power eager to be unleashed on those damn extras. She'd have to settle for her pillow, at least until one of those idiots gave her an excuse to throw down.

Katsumi had hoped that the constant bullying would be enough to discourage him from being a hero so he could put that big dumb brain of his to good use curing cancer or some shit.

She should have known better.

Not only did the nerd still want to be a hero, but he _still_ looked at her with those same fucking eyes. Like she could do no wrong.

It sickened her. She didn't deserve that look, not after abandoning him to the cruelty of their classmates.

_Just one more week_, she had told herself, not for the first time since this had all started. But it had all been ruined, all by that shitty useless quirk!

Katsumi had convinced herself that Izuku was close to giving it all up. She wasn't sure exactly where they'd stand once he did, but she'd planned to deal with it when it finally happened.

That was all thrown out the window when the nerd showed up half way through a game of heroes and villains with a god damn quirk. A full four and a half months after the last kid in their class got theirs.

For a moment her blood had run cold. Had her actions the past months all been for nothing? But even before seeing what his quirk could actually do, or couldn't as it had turned out, she had reassured herself that it wouldn't have mattered. A quirk did not change someone's personality, and as selfless he was, Izuku was simply too timid to be a hero. If the nerd couldn't stand up for himself, how could he stand up for others?

Her conclusion was only reaffirmed a moment later when Izuku's quirk proved to be as weak as its owner. Not only would it reignite his drive to be a hero, but it would do absolutely nothing to keep him safe.

"Shitty floating blob," she growled, steeling herself for the drama that was sure to come.

Katsumi knew she didn't deserve his forgiveness, but she selfishly hoped he'd give it one day all the same.

ooOo Izuku oOoo

"It seems to be a radical mutation of your own quirk, Midoriya-san."

The doctor's office was typical. Scholarly and pristine came to mind describing the décor, but he'd always felt this place was too formal to ever be comfortable.

Izuku sat attentively, despite the quirk specialist ignoring him entirely in favor of his mother. He was used to such treatment by this point as adults tended to not take young children too seriously. Izuku didn't hold it against the man, it wasn't unreasonable to expect children to act like, well… children.

Izuku's mother stared the doctor down, a polite smile on her face as Izuku wondered not for the first time, which god he'd pleased to have such a nice mom. She coughed subtly and nodded towards her son before the doctor took a hint and addressed the boy himself. Izuku wiped at a tear threatening to fall and steeled himself. This was about _his _quirk, he had to be assertive!

And so, the questions began.

"Are we sure there's no influence from my father's quirk? He could breath fire," the boy asked excitedly. The doctor looked cautiously surprised but answered anyway.

"Whatever this material is," he started, peering curiously at the shiny orb bobbing serenely over the young boy's head. "Whatever it is, even though you currently have no willful control over it, given how it responds to your emotions we can assume that you have some sort of telekinetic connection to the material. A mutation of your mother's quirk is the most likely scenario, though its yet to be seen if you retain any temperature manipulation from your father." He sat thoughtfully for a moment, "these things tend to develop over time."

Izuku practically had stars in his eyes as terms like _develop _and _temperature manipulation _were thrown around like this doctor wasn't currently exceeding every meager expectation he set at the start of this visit. Of course, he had seen it first hand in some of his classmates even over the relatively short time since they'd had their quirks.

Even with his classmate's lukewarm reactions, it was still nice to receive some confirmation that there was a chance his quirk would not remain so frighteningly pointless. He took a deep breath, ready to dive back into the questions he'd prepared specifically for this visit.

"What did you mean 'whatever this material is'?"

"Ah, well you see the equipment we use in this building to test for heavy-metal toxicity in the bloodstream did not recognize the sample we took of your quirk. Its not so unreasonable as our tests are specifically geared to detect certain metals, but you'll have to send a sample to a more specialized facility to find out more."

Izuku nodded like a maniac, already planning his own experimentation. He panicked for a moment as the doctor checked his watch not for the first time that evening. Not yet! He had so many more questions, but the most important one of all sprang to the front of his mind.

"Sensei wait! With this quirk—c-can I be a hero with a quirk like this?" The question came out much more timidly than he had intended, but the doctor still managed to hear.

The man shrugged casually, "Maybe, I think that's up to you at this point. That concludes our allotted time, I have another appointment due in five minutes."

Izuku and his mother were escorted out of the office, the young boy with a spring in his step that wasn't present on the way in.

It may have taken an offhand comment from an apathetic quirk doctor for him to believe it, but for the first time in months, life was looking up for Izuku.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello there! Thanks for all the support for the first chapter, sometimes you think something is good but you never really know until people read it. I apologize for this chapter being a bit info-dumpy. It's necessary and I tried to make it interesting as possible. However, I _really_ like how the two chapters after this one came out, and I'm usually my own worst critic.**

**Also! Anything remotely "sciency" should be viewed with anime goggles. My reference is anything I remembered from high school chemistry (which I did **_not _**do well in), and things I'm looking up on the fly so there _will_ be mistakes, I promise you.**

Chapter 2

A Happy Accident

ooOo Izuku oOoo

It took Izuku six months to use his quirk with any sort of purpose. Even after tinkering with his ability ever day after school, he had only managed to move the quicksteel short distances out of its default orbit. It was progress, but not nearly enough to be considered useful, so he kept his practice to himself.

Izuku figured the name he'd chosen on a whim was as good as any. He had read about the element mercury before, and he thought it was cool how it stayed a liquid at room temperature. So, he settled for quicksteel, as a play on the slang term for mercury. The quirk registry didn't seem to mind the invented name once they realized how truly unique his ability was.

The bullying of course, continued, and Katsumi remained as distant as ever, if not a bit quicker to anger than before. Was she really enjoying being surrounded by the classmates that sung her praises so easily? It really didn't look like it. He preferred Kacchan's confident grin much more than the scowl she wore these days.

School was the same, remarkably mundane even in this world of super powered humans. To pass the time, Izuku had taken to meditating in his time alone between classes. finding that having a better handle on his emotions stopped the quicksteel from flitting around out of his control.

Following the referral from the original quirk specialist Izuku and his mother arranged for a sample of his metal to analyzed by a lab out of the country. The results were due any day now. Hopefully they would give him some insight on the potential of his quirk. He'd already filled a notebook with speculation, but he wanted _answers_.

ooOoOoOoo

"Izuku, honey, it's here!"

The boy in question raced down the hall to meet his mother at the door. His eyes practically sparkled and his All Might hoodie flapped in the wind. Inko smiled knowingly at his enthusiasm aware of how eagerly her son had been waiting for the results of his tests.

Izuku snatched the letter from her hand as politely as possible with a quick, "Thanks, Mom!"

He'd barely made it back to his room before he began pouring over the report.

There were countless pages of data that went over Izuku's head, but several points of interest were summarized at the end.

Izuku had been correct in his observation of the similarities between his quirk and the chemical mercury. They both had a relatively low melting point, resulting in its liquid state at room temperature.

However, that is where the similarities ended.

After extensive testing, it was determined that the material sampled from Izuku's quirk did not occur naturally in the world. Despite sharing similar properties to several elements, it did not match any single one perfectly. Its density exceeded his quirk's namesake, even rivaling gold, one of the densest naturally occurring elements. Perhaps the most crucial detail was the unknown metal's incredible tensile strength when it was cooled below its melting points, changing from a liquid to a solid.

The words _overall strength comparable to carbon steel _jumped out to Izuku's verdant eyes as they frantically trailed back and forth over the scrawled notes.

It looked like the name he had chosen was more appropriate that he had initially thought.

The pointed tip of Izuku's pencil blurred across the lined paper of his personal notebook as the aspiring hero detailed what this new information meant for his own quirk training. Knowing that his quirk had the _potential_ to be great was one thing.

Now he just had to figure out if he even had the _ability_ to control the temperature of his quicksteel.

Izuku prayed for _some _sort of influence from his father's quirk. It would be nice to have _something_ from the man, having never actually met him face to face.

He didn't really have anything personal against his dad. But even with his mother's attempts to not influence Izuku's opinion of his father, it's not like he had any experiences to base that opinion on. He briefly entertained the idea of asking his mom if he could contact the man for advice, but something stopped him. Midoriya Inko was always more hesitant than usual when he asked about his dad, and she worried enough without added anything extra to her plate.

No, Izuku would have to figure this out for himself.

oooOoOoOooo

For nearly a year, Izuku dedicated most of his free time towards practicing with his quirk.

He was largely unsuccessful.

Altering the temperature of the material generated by his quirk proved to be much more difficult than he had imagined despite improving his control over its liquid state. He even managed to shape it into various shapes, but until he could solidify those forms his progress was at a standstill. According to the infra-red thermometer he had asked his mother to purchase online, he had barely managed to lower the temperature of his quirk more than a few degrees at a time.

Granted, it was validating for Izuku that doing so was even possible in the first place, and he was as enthusiastic as ever as he regaled his bemused mother with tales of how he'd raised it almost _two_ degrees today. Unfortunately, it meant nothing until he could completely solidify quicksteel. It would open a whole new array of possibilities once he succeeded.

Izuku knew he couldn't only rely on his quirk as a hero and fully intended to train his body once he was a bit older, but at the moment, anything past basic fitness would only do more harm than good to his still-developing body.

Izuku felt like his progress had plateaued. He went to school, as was expected of every child, aspiring hero in training or not. He payed as much attention in lessons as he could manage, often catching onto the concepts faster than his peers. Izuku of course kept up his hero analysis, filling volumes two, three and four of _Hero Analysis for the Future._ Though his peer's overall opinion of him didn't change much, Izuku's ability to brush off their harsh words only improved with his greater emotional control and self-esteem. His daily meditation succeeded at improving his control over his quirk, but a welcome side effect was his reduced anxiety, and the subsequent boost to his confidence.

For some, however, words were not enough to assert their superiority. Izuku had been cornered on several occasions by some of his classmates, though he'd been escaping with less and less hassle, (and bruises) every time. His bullies weren't very creative with their attempts to reassure him of his uselessness, and where Izuku was lacking in strength he made up for in agility, able to slip away given the smallest opportunity.

Izuku might have been a bit more upset that the primary school teachers allowed such blatant bullying to occur in their classrooms. That is if it hadn't led to his first real breakthrough in months.

It was silly really. Izuku was making his way to the back row of their classroom. He'd been lucky enough to be assigned a seat in the back that year. It allowed him to avoid the unwanted attention of his peers for most of the day.

That day was the rare exception.

Izuku's eyes were bleary and unfocused from lack of sleep the previous night. A group of villains had tried to rob a bank in downtown Musutafu and had ended up taking hostages. Of course, being the avid hero fan that he was, Izuku had been up all night watching the live newsfeed of all the action. Eventually Pro-hero Snipe had taken out the aggressors with a nonlethal application of his quirk from long range, keeping the hostages, not to mention bystanders, out of harm's way.

Being in such a state of unrest, Izuku didn't notice the leg stuck out intending to trip him as he normally would. Teiji Kugo was a brat, and his quirk: telescopic knee, wasn't likely to ever be put to better use than tripping up kids in school hallways.

Not that the quirk itself lacked potential, but the ugly personality it was attached to sure did. In fact, if Izuku wasn't one of the boy's most frequent targets he might have been quite interested in how such a quirk worked from an anatomical standpoint. However, Izuku _was _a frequent target of the boy's bullying, and the rapidly approaching ground lent credence to that fact.

Izuku's hand darted out towards the closest desk in an effort to save himself, but he missed by a mere centimeter, leaving himself at gravity's mercy.

This was it. This is where it all ends.

Until it wasn't.

Izuku gaped at his hand hovering around a foot above the floor, braced sturdily against a flat, wonderfully _solid _disk of quicksteel. In his shock he pulled his hand away, leaning on a desk by his side. After a moment the slight indentation of his handprint that was left in the metal slowly smoothed over, the quicksteel reverting back to its natural liquid state.

Was he dreaming? Izuku's eyes widened, darting around to see if anyone had noticed.

Katsumi's gaze had darted towards him at the sound of the commotion but judging from the snickers of Kugo's cronies they had only seen him stumble. The quick save from his quirk must have happened under the desks and out of sight! His classmates had seen the orb zip around many times in response to Izuku's heightened emotions, so there was no reason they would be suspicious.

Izuku trudged to his desk, quelling the violent urge to voice the flurry of ideas bouncing around in his head, a habit he had all but broken in the previous year or so.

He wrenched his backpack open and snatched his personal notebook out of the main pocket. The familiar cool touch of paper under his fingers calmed him slightly and settled his thoughts.

He had done it! But how? What had changed, how were the conditions different? All his other attempts at solidifying quicksteel before this point had resulted in lackluster results.

Izuku tapped his pencil rhythmically against a blank page, his mind running a mile a minute.

Had he been thinking about it wrong this entire time? In all his past experiments he was focused on the science behind it all. He'd thought _cool this below its melting point. _It was logically sound, but entirely too clinical for something that should be a _part of him. _Like an extension of his own body.

All that had been on Izuku's mind just moments ago was _stop falling_.

The tapping stopped.

That was the difference. That was the state of mind he needed to achieve, the overwhelming _need_ for a certain result.

He replayed the situation in his mind as best he could remember. Izuku had reflexively moved his quirk to catch himself despite never having succeeded before. But judging from the imprint his hand left in the quicksteel, it hadn't finished, or possibly even _started _hardening until his hand had touched it.

Could skin contact have anything to do with his seemingly random success? He had touched his quicksteel while training before of course, but Izuku couldn't help but feel his quirk was somehow… stronger in that moment of panic.

He'd never been able to test lifting anything with his quirk since any object would just fall through in its liquid state, no matter how much he compressed the material.

But supporting his whole _body?_ Izuku had felt something in that moment that was new to the boy.

Strength.

Besides the slight bit of give that prevented any permanent damage to his wrist from the impact, his telekinetic grasp over quicksteel held strong. It was unwavering under the weight of his admittedly small frame. Would he be able to recreate what just happened? Could it… support his _whole _body_? _His hands twitched, eager to touch the metal again even surrounded as he was by all his classmates.

"Midoriya! Do something about that _please,_ you're distracting the other students!"

His eyes snapped to the front of the classroom where their English teacher had shouted from. Apparently, Izuku's tenuous control over quicksteel had lapsed leaving it free to dance about in the space above his head. Its normally spherical base form wobbled and undulated below the surface, projecting its master's joy for the world to see.

The inevitable round of laughter was a few decibels louder than earlier, but it was nothing in the face of Izuku's newfound success. He muttered a quick apology and the quicksteel settled as he regained a grasp over his excitement. Let them laugh. He'd get his turn when he was finally accepted by UA.

The green-haired boy hid a grin with hunched shoulders and a bowed head. He had _years_ until he could practically (not to mention legally) use his quirk to help people. But he also knew that that time would fly by in the blink of an eye. Izuku certainly had his work cut out for him.

He couldn't wait.

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku stood in the center of his bedroom, lids resting over his normally expressive green eyes. He exuded a sense of serenity, as if he was utterly unconcerned with the world around him.

This, however, was a ruse.

Izuku's focus, razor sharp, was centered on that familiar _weight_ in the corner of his mind. The total command of the mass of metal that was as much a part of him as the rest of his body. Even now, blind to the world around him, he could sense the shifting quicksteel floating before him.

He engaged his quirk, gently coaxing the material into the shape he needed. The quicksteel _shivered_, slowly thinning out, flattening into a disk around half a meter in diameter.

He'd of course tried to replicate the incident from two weeks previously the first moment he had to himself. He'd rushed up to his room for his first attempt the minute he had gotten home from school, stunning his mother in as he passed in the hall with his vigor. She'd gotten used to the more outgoing boy Izuku had become, but even _this_ had been a bit much for a normal day.

His results had been slow at first, but by the end of the night he had managed to solidify quicksteel into several different shapes. He'd sure payed for it the next morning, pulling two all-nighters in a row couldn't be healthy.

He'd been correct in both of his assumptions. Skin contact was indeed required, at least at the moment, for the hardening effect he had managed to reproduce. Perhaps of even more significance, was the added power to the telekinetic aspect of his quirk if he physically handled it.

The potential of such a development was incomprehensible to the young boy_._

The metal he controlled was _dense, _and his quirk seemed to produce a maximum amount of it, directionally proportionate to either his age, or his body's physical development. Either was a possible explanation at this point since the orb had grown to the size of a grapefruit in the time since it had appeared. Even the small amount his quirk produced currently was enough to pack a serious punch if traveling with enough force. Force he was now more than capable of creating while physically handling his quirk's constructs. Offensive weapons, defensive shields and armor, with enough practice only his imagination would be the limit.

Maybe if he got good enough, he could augment his own strength with the force generated by his telekinesis!

Scenes of Izuku as a fully realized hero bounced around the young boy's imagination, a thin layering of quicksteel covering his arms as he stood heroically between a crowd of innocents and the shadowy villain threatening them.

The fine control needed to keep quicksteel flexible enough to mold to the moving joints and muscles of his arms while retaining its defensive properties was something Izuku knew was simply out of his reach at the moment. That would require years of practice, and for the moment was shelved for something of quite a bit higher priority to the boy.

His focus returned to the disk of metal floating a few centimeters off the ground. As amazing a hero All Might was, there was something even the Symbol of Peace himself wasn't capable of. It was a staple ability of a hero even when the notion was purely fantasy. Izuku believed it was well within his power the minute he felt the strength of his quirk those two weeks previous.

He _needed_ a platform, somewhere where he could stand! He flooded his body with the will needed to convey the command as he lightly stepped onto the shimmering pool. The metal was cool, but not uncomfortably so on his bare feet. The shining metal platform seemed to shimmer in the air, its form wobbling for a moment, before it settled into a solid disk.

Izuku braced himself for this next part. Keeping quicksteel solid through contact with the soles of his feet proved to be significantly harder than doing so with his hands. For a moment he had considered that he might be working backwards by learning to channel his hardening through his feet, before mastering using his hands. But what would that accomplish always taking the easy way?

He wanted to fly dammit!

Could Kacchan shoot explosions from her feet? As far as he knew, skin contact of any nature gave him increased control over his quicksteel, but maybe it changed from quirk to quirk.

Izuku gently shifted the weight from his left foot to his right, still planted firmly on the surface of his platform before stepping up with his full weight. This is where he had fallen the most in the past week. Simultaneously balancing himself on his disk while controlling it mentally was incredibly taxing, taking all the aspiring hero's concentration.

For a few seconds he stood steady letting out an ecstatic cry at his success before a brief lapse in concentration sent him sprawling to the hardwood floor. The dull _thud_ of his fall shook the hero figurines decorating his shelves and echoed throughout the small apartment.

"Izuku are you alright?" came the worried call from his mother down the hall.

"Fine mom!"

Despite his apparent failure, Izuku had a wide grin adorning his features as he rubbed at his future bruises. That had been his most successful attempt to date.

This totally might work!

oooOoOoOooo

When Izuku asked his mother to buy him a longboard a few weeks later he was prepared for many reactions. Luckily, or perhaps no so much, spontaneously fainting was indeed one of the reactions he had predicted. As such, he was prepared with a sheet of quicksteel that gently cradled her form and lowered her to the couch conveniently located several meters away.

His mother's nervous disposition was a part of her personality he had already grown quite used to. While it was a result of her highly empathetic nature and would never change that part of her, it did leave her a bit out of order in times of stress.

He put a kettle on to boil, knowing his mom might appreciate a cup of tea when she rejoined the land of the living.

She woke just a moment later as Izuku knew she would, with a cry of "Not one of those rolling death traps!"

He sighed, convincing her might be a bit harder than he had imagined.

There were several excuses he could use to explain away his request, but in this instance, he settled for the truth. His request was entirely reasonable after all. He only hoped that her worry for him wouldn't override her sense of reason.

"I can ride my quirk like a board," he explained quickly, shucking off his shoes to demonstrate to his mother. He settled on floating platform with a fraction of the time and effort, a testament to having practiced religiously over the last few weeks.

"Honey, that's amazing!"

Izuku yelped as his feet left the platform, and while he was shaken around like a rag doll in his mother's hug. "You're going to be such a cool hero Izuku," she whispered warmly.

Izuku relaxed in her grip, returning the hug as his chest glowed with affection for this woman. She had said so many times by this point, but frankly he would never tired of his mother's confidence in his success.

"I can hover in place just fine," Izuku said once she had released him. He hopped back onto the disk in one fluid motion, wobbling slightly as the surface drifted around the room at a consistent height. "But my balanced still isn't the best," he explained, scowling uncharacteristically at the focus it took just to stay upright.

"That's still wonderfully impressive Izuku," his mother replied with stars in her eyes.

He blushed lightly, still working on accepting compliments with grace, though this time was easier as he was personally just as satisfied with his own progress.

Its what drove him to keep improving, seeing himself grow stronger with each day of practice.

"That's why I wanted the longboard," he said, stepping down to the floor and returning autonomy to his quirk. It floated airily to shoulder height, the orb's preferred location to flit around while Izuku wasn't exerting his will. "I figured it would improve my balanced while learning without having to be too far above ground or having to focus on controlling the platform itself."

Inko took a few moments to think to herself before nodding simply, "It's for your safety then?"

He smiled at his mother, the hard part was done with. "Right mom, its for my safety… in a way."

"Then I see no problem," she smiled sweetly. "As long as you wear a helmet."

He nodded with a bit of exasperation. It wasn't an _un_reasonable request, and Izuku was sure he'd be falling plenty of times before getting the hang of it.

They shook on it, and Izuku rushed off with his mother's credit card to make the purchase, having preemptively decided on a board after weighing the pros and cons of each model extensively.

Izuku was pleasantly surprised when the package came the next day. But his mother had commentant that nowadays postal services often augmented their standard delivery routines with individuals whose quirks were suited to the task.

It was a gentle reminder to Izuku that there were literally billions of people on the planet with quirks, and only a miniscule percent of them became pro heroes. It really put his goal into perspective. To be considered great, he would have to work harder than every other kid with the same aspirations as himself.

It wasn't exactly rare to dream to be a hero after all.

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku coming home with a couple scrapes and bruises was the norm in the Midoriya household for the next couple of days. But for once, Inko looked on with fond exasperation instead of anxious fretting. Maybe it was because these were injuries from pursuing a passion rather than those inflicted by his classmates. He knew she probably didn't believe his excuses about the cause of some of his previous injuries.

Izuku had bought a drop-down longboard, thinking it might simulate the motion of flying with his quirk better than a shorter deck. He road to school for the last two days of the school week before spending hours over the weekend coasting around an empty parking lot he'd found just down the street from his apartment.

Izuku was stuck somewhere between training his balance for his quirk and genuinely enjoying the sport of it. The rush of the wind in his face and his already gravity defying hair whipping around his head was incredibly calming. But the rush as he flew down even a reasonably _gentle_ slope was exhilarating. He could barely imagine what it would be like when he finally managed to slice through the sky with his own power.

He took some spills of course, some nastier than others. However, that was a natural part of the learning process, and learning to fall correctly was never a lesson that would go to waste for a hero. Izuku didn't lack intelligence and was indeed a quick study. Even a more physically leaning task, which he'd struggled with in the past, was no match for his perseverance. Once he gotten a decent amount of experience under his belt Izuku took to it like a fish to water.

He honestly may have been hooked.

Life continued for Izuku as he fell into a comfortable routine. He rode to and from school, and as he grew older, spent increasing amounts of time prowling the streets after they'd been let out for the day.

Chasing down heroes to catch the action live proved much easier with wheels than on foot, and Izuku found himself spending hours after school tracking down heroes and documenting new quirks firsthand. What started as a personal hobby of taking particularly detailed notes turned into something much more. His hero analytics were as good as if not better than an encyclopedia of every relevant hero that had hit the big time in the last several years. Analytics and stat charts detailed everything from a hero's level of physical fitness to their quirk's strengths and weaknesses. Volume seven was coming along quite nicely with only ten pages or so left to fill, leaving the last couple pages for an index of course.

Weekends were reserved for Izuku to practice with his quirk as he was under no illusions that he could ride on an extra axis without any practice.

Honing his skill at manipulating quicksteel was slow progress as usual, and Izuku suspected it would always be so. The only way to truly master one's quirk, and anything really, was with mileage.

So he practiced. A lot.

Izuku found convenient spot to practice at the local junkyard. At least that's what he'd thought it was, until his mom told him about the pristine beach it was when she was younger.

Clearing a space to work with took several hours, but in the end, it was time well spent considering he'd been able to test out augmenting his strength with his quirk. The result was a space on the sand where falling from his hoverboard wouldn't cause permanent injury. Izuku planned to clear a bit more of the trash out with every visit over the next several years. Hauling the junk littering the sand would work as well as anything else to help hone his quirk, and hey, maybe he could clear out the beach with enough time.

He eyed some of the stacks of abandoned vehicles that loomed meters over his head. Maybe not.

The metal that clung to his hands now was misshapen and clumsy-looking, more like two platforms stuck to his palms than a thin coating. But it was the bare minimum he needed to move the larger pieces of junk, and it was all Izuku could manage yet. It did the job, aiding Izuku in lifting the old appliances that his still-developing body normally wouldn't be able to tackle.

Controlling quicksteel in separate pieces seemed to half the force he could exert on each, not to mention the added difficulty of focusing on two things at once. The seemingly mindless task of clearing the beach one weekend at a time would serve Izuku in two ways. Flexing his quirk in more strenuous situations would hopefully strengthen it over time while simultaneously gaining some finesse with his ability.

Now however, he stuck to hauling trash and during rest periods, tried to harden quicksteel without the crutch of skin contact. He imagined his control would always be stronger with, than without, but being able to move things, or people, remotely would be exceedingly useful.

He continued in the same vein as the seasons changed, time passed, and his life was stable for once. It wasn't until Izuku's first day at Aldera secondary school that everything was thrown out of balance.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Hi there, this is the first time I've written an AU that starts from the very beginning of a series. My other story begins a few years into canon so has some of that framework already set to fall back on. With this story there is none of that so I'm treading new waters here, hope I don't disappoint. I only mention this now because this chapter is the first major deviance from canon aside from the obvious quirk!Izuku fem!bakugo etc. Let me know what you think.**

**Also, I think I had a problem with long-windedness in my other story and have been trying to be a bit more concise with my phrasing in this one. If any of you have read ABE as well, please let me know if you've noticed any difference. Enjoy the chapter.**

**edit: There were some reviews about the silver surfer vibes from Izuku's quirk. There is indeed some inspiration drawn from the silver surfer at least aesthetically, for this aspect of his quirk. As far as the silver surfer's origins, I'm fairly ignorant, I just really like how that character looked in the fantastic four movie. Someone also mentioned a spell used in Fate/Zero by one of the Mages. Its been **_years _**since I'd last watched that series and I'd entirely forgotten about the scene in question. But its actually **_really _**close visually to what I was going for with Izuku's quirk, just airborne instead of rolling along the ground. However the way that spell _works_ differs in several ways to Izuku's quirk, which I won't talk about any more since it's a subject that comes up in the story.**

**Lets just say there is inspiration drawn from countless series and media and leave it at that.**

**Thanks for all the support.**

Chapter 3

The Turning Point

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

There were many types of anger, this was a fact Katsumi knew all too well.

There was of course the blinding, seething rage that only appeared in the rarest of circumstances. The target of _that_ kind usually came to regret whatever they had done to earn her attention in the first place. Her reject classmates always crowding around her were more of a mild annoyance, barely classifying as anger.

But this deep-seated, long-lasting, _parasite _of a feeling in her gut was a cut above the rest.

The source of her ire? Midoriya fuckin Izuku of course. Who else had the abillity to leave her both apoplectic and so horribly conflicted in the same moment?

No one, that's who!

Her mother had mumbled some bullshit about a match, but Katsumi had stopped listening to _her_ rants _years_ ago. The woman had the audacity to tell her to _not_ explode morons when they annoyed her. The hell kinda advice was that? That wasn't helpful at all!

That, however, didn't get rid of her current problem. Katsumi wasn't even sure what to do at this point.

For her admittedly short life, she had always tried to live at full throttle and without regrets.

She may have screwed up that second part… damn nerd was one _huge_ regret.

Izuku had _changed_, and Katsumi was still baffled that she was the only one who'd noticed it.

She had expected _some _shift in attitude of course. Katsumi would have even _welcomed_ a bit of bravado from the boy, god knows he could use it. The nerd was already dead set on being a hero even _before _that glorified mood ring of a quirk appeared. She'd known of course that once his quirk had appeared, he'd only be even more determined. But she'd remained aloof in a last-ditch effort to keep him out of harm's way. Determined he may be, but Katsumi had refused to let such a kind, brilliant mind go to waste trying to keep up with all the dangerous quirks tossed around by villains.

At least that was what she'd thought at the time.

Frankly, it seemed that the only thing about Izuku that remained the same were those same selfless qualities, and of course his utter obsession with quirks, no matter _who_ they belonged to.

Gone was the eternal stutter, replaced with a quiet confidence. The quick-witted mind Katsumi knew from when they were young and inseparable was _finally_ allowed to shine.

Even though she'd initially hoped the bullying would discourage Izuku from hero work, she was inwardly cackling every time he'd slip past his tormentors. The idiots always tried to corner him when the teachers weren't looking, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd actually seen someone catch him.

He'd always slip in an underhanded comment and slink away before they'd even registered his words. She swore Endo still spaced out sometimes trying to figure out some of Izuku's more creative burns.

Katsumi might not have been able to admit it to herself, but her plan was a bust by this point. Izuku had lost his timid nature, and… he just _held _himself differently. He walked like someone who would change the world.

She didn't hate it.

But how could she expect to just go back to how things were before she'd fucked it all up? That was even _more _delusional.

Now, she and Izuku had barely _spoken_ in years let alone been on friendly terms… and the damn nerd was still going to be a hero anyway!

Yes, _going _to be. She had no doubt that Izuku would somehow manage to slip through the cracks, even with such a weak quirk. He'd somehow put that big brain to use and find a way.

Even as kids, he'd always been doggedly following in her footsteps, no matter how hard a path she chose.

She _also_ knew he'd be an easy target for the millions that turned to villainy over an honest day's work. Being smart could only get you so far.

Katsumi choked down the familiar pangs of guilt that welled within her. What were all the weekends spent in solitude for? The beatings Izuku had endured in her absence? She could have protected him! She _should _have protected him.

She chewed on her thumbnail anxiously, lip curling into a grimace.

He must be sickened by the sight of her.

What kind of friend abandoned you in your greatest time of need?

Katsumi's foul mood had only worsened by the time she'd made it to school, and the sight of the dreary building ahead only loosened the girl's already tenuous grip on her sanity. It was a typical public school, lacking all the notoriety and prestige of some of the more expensive private schools around the country. It was the kind of institution that rarely saw students go on to legendary schools like UA.

"A school _by_ extras _for_ extras," she mused quietly, the beginnings of a sneer stretching across her deceptively fair features.

Katsumi's eyes dropped to the filthy sidewalk, littered with dried gum and trash. This was pretty much the standard here at Aldera Educational Institute. The sight of two pairs of black scuff marks streaking across the sidewalk immediately snapped her mind back to the boy she was trying to forget.

The longboard strapped to the back of his red backpack was a familiar sight by now.

The first time the nerd had come to school with that thing he'd had to go— sorry, _limp_ to the nurse's office before class even _started._ What the hell was aunty Inko _thinking? _ The overprotective mother didn't strike Katsumi as the kind of person who'd let him get away with some shit like that.

More importantly, what the hell had gotten into _Deku? _Longboarding? Where had that even _come _from. Up until this point all he'd been interested in was heroes, quirks, and pretty much any combination of the two.

As far as Katsumi knew there were no heroes that rode any sort of board, at least not in Japan, and Izuku wasn't the kind of thrill-seeker that would be attracted to that sort of thing out of the blue. Frankly, after having watched some videos on the sport online, it was something _she_ would have loved doing. Bombing down winding hills at over one hundred kph? Sign her the hell up.

But that was the _exact _reason that the nerd's sudden interest was so bizarre, their personalities were like night and day, at least back when she was still his friend. Had he really changed _that _much in so little time? The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Whatever, she didn't care. If Izuku wanted to break his neck imitating some obscure pro-hero then that was none of her business.

Admittedly he hadn't come to school bruised and battered for a few years now. She'd even occasionally catch a glimpse of him from a distance, racing down the hills of Musutafu, before he'd zip out of sight moving way faster than she'd thought possible.

Katsumi made her way through scuffed and tagged double doors of AEI. The campus was a combination of a middle and high school divisions, located in two separate buildings. The hallways stank of underfunded public education, and she reminded herself for perhaps the hundredth time, that she'd only have to slum it for another six years.

She cursed under her breath, that was way too fucking long. Just a "mere" six years until she could take her rightful place with the rest of the eli—

"Well, well, well, look what we have here boys."

She slowed her pace and turned to the voice. Four boys stood shoulder to shoulder, one standing slightly in front of the rest. She eyed the secondary school uniforms they all wore, the pins stuck to their jackets labeled them as being third years. They all wore their uniforms untucked and _without _the tie of course. Wouldn't want people to think they were lame or something.

_Gag._

They stood crowded around one of the hallways leading from the main plaza to the Junior high section of the campus. The bell had already rung meaning the group was waiting here for a specific reason. Katsumi didn't think it would take her three guesses for why.

Was this really happening? To _her?! _It was eight in the morning on her first day of middle school and she _so _didn't have time for this shit.

Katsumi eyed the leader with feigned indifference, noting his dramatically oversized forearms and the strange coiled mechanism that seemed to merge seamlessly into his flesh. A mutant type then?

Mistaking her silence for submission, he swaggered up to her speaking once more. "Word on the block is there's some hotshot moving up into middle school the teachers are calling a genius, that's you right?" The three other guys sneered down at Katsumi as she stared with lidded eyes, utterly uninterested.

A genius? That was a new one. Probably the least accurate of all the ridiculous titles people had given her over the years. Prodigy, Once-in-a-Generation, she'd heard them all at one point or another. But more importantly…

Were these fucking extras really pulling this shit right here? Right here by the main plaza of the school? Sure, it was a bit out of the way and in a hallway that wasn't really in direct view of the main office but _still. _

Katsumi felt a flash of righteous anger flood through her system. She had too much _shit_ to figure out already to have to deal with these idiots so early in the morning.

"You see… we thought we'd do our cute little kouhai a favor and nock her down a few pegs before she got too big a head."

God _damn, _how long did this monkey practice that line in the mirror this morning?

"Look, why don't you cut the yakuza routine, you're just embarrassing yourself," Katsumi drawled. She turned away to find her homeroom classroom, she was already late enough.

Katsumi cursed as her foot slammed into an opaque barrier that sprung into existence in front of her.

_Really_…

Katsumi kicked at the air experimentally. Her boots tapped audibly against a surface, despite nothing physically being there. She found the barrier solid even after reaching out to touch it at eye level. Her exit was thoroughly cut off.

Deep breaths Katsumi. _Don't_ explode the extras.

She exhaled heavily out of her nose, turning back to the group of four with pale eyebrows narrowed over crimson irises. The goon standing to Fat-hands' left held his palms together like he was praying or some shit. Either he was scared as fuck for his friend or it was a part of his quirk. Katsumi couldn't quite tell but it looked like the boy might be holding his breath as well.

Her lips curved into a subtle smirk, Izuku would probably have been raving about all the ways spawning barrier walls could be used to save people, but Katsumi's mind ran on a bit of a different wavelength.

She picked apart the weaknesses of such a gated emitter type, estimating the kind of cooldown someone with such an ability might have. Would he be able to spawn a second shield? Was there a time limit?

Their vulnerabilities.

The leader's first step towards her was heavy with implication, his grin as large and as fake as the gold chain that rattled around his neck.

A familiar tingling sensation arced across Katsumi's palms, her quirk _yearning_ to be unleashed, but she clamped down on the urge. Not quite yet.

She saw the wide left swing coming from a mile away, telegraphed and clumsy. If any of her opponents had seen the grin that split Katsumi's lips at that moment, they might have reconsidered their plans.

"All right, assholes, since you were kind enough to throw the first punch…" Katsumi ducked into the larger boy's swing, throwing an elbow strike to his solar plexus. The older boy reflexively doubled over in pain, and Katsumi let loose a devastating explosion aided open-palm uppercut to his jaw. "Just _die _already!"

_Finally_, she had an excuse to blow off some steam.

"Ikai! You alright man!?" called the third guy in their group seeing his leader slumped over in pain. He was thin, and had long, blue grey hair that fell to his shoulders. The boy was sweating and had an anxious look on his face. Kid probably hadn't even wanted to be here in the first place.

Katsumi smirked, _she_ wouldn't want to fight her either. She let out a huff of air turning to the others of the pitiful excuse for a gang, no reason to let them regroup, it's not like this was a manga or something.

With a carefully applied explosion of all force and minimal heat Katsumi burst across the distance between them, planting a fist in the gut of the idiot with the barrier quirk. If he thought she was just going to let him sit there blocking her only exit then he was dumber than he looked.

Not that she had any intention of running.

Katsumi ducked to the right, rolling out of the way as a rumbling surge of power echoed throughout the hallway. She turned, seeing the scuffed-up ground where she had been standing moments earlier. Crouched with his hand raised toward her was fat-hands, dark orange hair plastered to his brow with sweat. A faint blue glow from the mechanism in his arm reflected off the deranged look in his eyes.

Sound waves huh? Probably strong short to medium range, and a fairly slow projectile speed if she'd been able to dodge it instinctively.

It really was too early for this shit.

She sighed heavily. It didn't really matter; this kid wasn't even a pebble on the side of the road to her. He was an afterthought really, in the greater scheme of things.

But he'd made the mistake of challenging her directly. What would people think if she didn't live up to all their _wonderful_ expectations?

She rushed the leader with an explosion for speed, leaning her weight back with bent knees as she slid under his weak right hook. Capitalizing on the larger boy's hesitation, Katsumi delivering a powerful blow to his kidney. All it took was a textbook leg sweep and he dropped like a house of cards.

The nervous-looking boy who had spoken up earlier had turned tail in the confusion, leaving the only remaining crony approaching with blind anger in his eyes. Katsumi made short work of the boy, his mutation quirk that gave him the legs and tail of a lizard only affording him a bit of extra mobility. Perhaps the claws would have posed a threat had Katsumi given him an opportunity to even use them.

Would his tail grow back if she exploded it off? No... not worth the trouble, plus someone would have heard all that. Katsumi glanced at the scorched walls of the hallway and the whimpering forms of the downed upperclassmen.

"Shit…"

Hopefully these idiots would be too fucking embarrassed to rat her out. She could already hear the lecture from her mother if she was busted for fighting at school. As much as the teachers groveled at her feet, even _she_ might not get away with brawling in the hallways. They usually came down hard on unlicensed quirk usage in a fight.

Just as she was about to walk off to _finally _make it to class the walls of the hallway lit up with an arctic blue glow. She turned in time to catch sight of a beam of energy rushing towards her. Her feet were mid-step making it awkward to dodge, so Katsumi shot off an explosion from one arm in a last-ditch effort to avoid the blast.

It worked to some degree, but the shot from her blind spot had proved too hard to sidestep completely even _with_ her animalistic reactions.

It clipped her left side, knocking the breath from her lungs and tossing her across the hall. Katsumi tumbled to a heap wheezing as she tried to regain her breath. The pain was negligible. What wasn't however…

That _fucking_ bastard did _not _just shoot her in the back with his bootleg present mic _bullshit_.

Katsumi saw red.

Before he had even seen her move, she was crouched before him, a palm smoldering a devilish crimson. The first blast flung the ape that even _tried_ to challenge her into the filthy hallway wall, spittle flying from his mouth as flesh met unforgiving concrete.

She blast-jumped after him, lost to the frenzy of battle, a right hook humming with explosive firepower swinging towards the defenseless upperclassman.

Her quirk yearned for retribution.

Katsumi's eyes picked up movement in her peripherals before the attack connected. The explosion was blinding in its intensity not to mention the _boom_ that echoed off the enclosed acoustics of the hallway.

Hell yeah! Even _her _ears rung from that one.

But something was wrong, Katsumi's application of Explosion was incredibly fine-tuned, the product of years of practice and research. The amount of chemical she had released for that attack should have resulted in a significantly bigger bang.

The smoke cleared, and one of her questions was answered, but so many more came to mind. Before her stood none other than Midoriya Izuku, kind, green eyes narrowed and burning with a fire she had only seen from him on rare occasions.

But wait… Izuku had just tanked one of her stronger explosions barehanded!

No... that wasn't right, his hand wasn't bare, it was shiny and meta—

_Oh no._

"I think that's enough Kacchan."

Katsumi's stomach plummeted. She knew what this probably looked like, of _course _he would show up at precisely this moment. When it looked like she was mercilessly beating down the defenseless. It wasn't exactly her first schoolyard fight after all.

But his eyes didn't hold any of the scorn she expected, only that infuriatingly gentle, _disgustingly_ gentle look he always got. Honest eyes pierced through her as if none of the walls she'd packed around her for years had meant anything. Katsumi's jaw tightened as she scowled reflexively, breaking eye contact before him for once.

Izuku just stood there, the glossy surface of what she assumed was his decidedly _not-_useless quirk reflected the sunlight peeking into he hallway.

This is where he would tell her that he was disgusted with her, Katsumi just knew it. He would berate her for the years she left him alone, before leaving _her_ alone

Just like she deserved.

Ignoring the rational part of her mind that told her the boy before her wasn't _capable_ of such cruelty, she followed her body's instinctive response to vulnerability. Her legs had started moving before she'd even registered it herself.

Katsumi made it through the School entrance before he could see the first tear fall.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

_Five minutes earlier-_

Oh god he was so freaking _late_!

The previous day, Izuku had caught wind of a curious rumor on one of the forums he frequented. Someone had said that All Might would be making an appearance at a 5k charity run in the business district of uptown Musutafu early this morning so Izuku had chanced riding into town to scope the place out before school.

The All Might was a lie! How cruel…

It had all turned out to be just that: a rumor. There was indeed a charity event, but instead of the Symbol of Peace there was an appearance by a well-known local hero instead. Izuku had nothing against Crimson Riot, but he was no All Might.

Then again, was anyone _really_ All Might? Had anyone even come close? That might not be the best scale to judge a hero by. Did All Might seem so inhumanly powerful to the other top heroes as well? There really was only one way to find out, but attaining that level was a far-off goal for the green haired youth.

Regardless, he was now frighteningly late, bombing down the last hill before AEI at close to eighty kilometers an hour.

He torqued his core around halfway down the slope, whipping his board ninety degrees into a slide. Izuku reveled in the familiar loss of traction, letting his momentum practically float him over the asphalt. He let out a shout, a confident grin plastered across the young boy's face as he drifted into the last turn at the bottom of the hill, turning onto Aldera drive.

Izuku rarely had to use his quirk to correct his balance anymore, only protecting his palms while hand-sliding. What had started as a glorified training exercise had turned into a genuine hobby, not to mention his main mode of transportation, and Izuku couldn't get enough of it.

He uncharacteristically cursed under his breath as the echoing ring of the first warning bell sounded from off in the distance. And on his first day of middle school too! His obsession with heroes may be getting a bit out of hand. To think that he'd let himself be late on such an important day.

But it was _All Might _though…

He rolled up to the main building, hopped off his board and seeing that no one was around, snatched it off the ground with a tendril of quicksteel, already sprinting up the steps and taking the first turn down the left hallway.

Just as he was about to take the right turn from the main plaza of the school his classroom in the junior high building, he heard a disturbance from the hallways leading between the two main wings. Curious, and resigned to being late anyway, Izuku peered around the corner, only to flinch away as a blinding flash of light bathed the hallway in orange, searing his eyes in the process.

The sound followed a millisecond after, a harsh boom that Izuku could _feel_ hit his chest. He had reflexively thrown up a concave shield of quicksteel in response to a potential attack, but it never came. He turned back in the hallway, eyes searching for the reason Katsumi had set off such a large-scale attack, for who else could be the cause of such a blast?

His eyes widened as he took in the scene. He marked the two downed upperclassmen in his head, one clutching his stomach in pain, and the other on his back, reptilian legs twitching as he struggled to get up.

Katsumi practically _blurred_ as she rushed towards the third, who was currently splayed spread-eagled against a grey wall. This was the most likely victim of the explosion from earlier.

Judging by the sparks trailing Katsumi's palm it wasn't to be the last.

Izuku's legs moved before he knew it, launching himself in between the two fighters as quicksteel molded over his right hand and halfway up his forearm. He felt the impact of the blow immediately and once again was reminded of how absurdly powerful this girl was. Even with his telekinetic control over quicksteel reinforcing his natural strength he was almost blown away from the force. The heat washed over him uncomfortably but not to dangerous levels. He'd managed to redirect most of the blast up and away from him and the boy cowering at his ankles.

What Izuku _didn't _expect however, was the wave of fatigue that washed over him.

What could that have been? It had never happened before while using his quirk, not even hauling fridges down at Dagoba beach. Did quicksteel struggle with kinetic force? That would pose a problem for hero work, but there was also the heat of Katsumi's explosion to consider. Such a limitation could be problematic, but it was something he could work around.

The smoke cleared and Izuku saw Katsumi's eyes widen imperceptibly. Her brows shot up as soon as she identified him, reasonable, considering the times Izuku stood up to her in their childhood could be counted on a single hand.

"I think that's enough, Kacchan."

The tension of the situation leaked into his tone, and the words came out a bit harsher than he had intended. This was the first true interaction he'd had with the girl in years after all, and he found her about to throw away everything she'd worked for? Izuku simply couldn't let her go through with that.

But this wasn't the reaction he had expected at his intervention. Anger was expected. Anger would have been _normal_. This guilt and… _regret _that shone so evidently in her eyes, that wasn't the Kacchan that he knew at all.

Why was she looking at him like that? Like she actually gave a shit. She rarely looked at _anything _like that anymore, let alone _him_.

Before he could ponder the enigmatic blonde any further, she broke the eye contact with a clenched jaw, teeth practically cracking under the pressure.

Was she angry after all?

However, in another moment Katsumi was gone, the distant cracks of her quirk the only indication that she had even been there in the first place.

Well… that, and the three older students lying in their own drool… and the scorch marks on the walls…

He licked a finger and pinched out a small flame that clung to his school uniform with a sigh.

"Shit."

Izuku started at the sound of approaching footsteps, most likely a teacher sent to investigate the explosions. After deliberating for a moment, as much as his studious nature screamed at him to go to class, he followed instincts and rushed after the fleeing blonde.

His dark red chucks tapped rhythmically against the linoleum floor as Izuku raced down the halls. Taking a deep breath, he meticulously shaped the full volume of his quicksteel into a sleek, pin-tailed board, letting it hover at his side once he was satisfied with the length and shape.

Something about that look on Katsumi's face as she'd run told him he'd regret letting her go. The worst she could do was tell him to leave her alone. Well… not really, but she'd never hurt _him._

_Right?_

Izuku hopped along comically as he tried to yank off his shoes and socks while running. He finally succeeded as he rounded the corner and bolted out the front door. Izuku took a running leap off the front steps without a second thought.

That brief moment of weightlessness as he hung in the air was immortalized in Izuku's mind. The shining spring sun, beating down on his hair and slowly warming the cool morning air. The distant noises of construction on the breeze. The familiar _weight_ at the edge of his mind that was always there, the mass of quicksteel that was _his_ to command.

He glanced down, and his own face, split into a joyful grin stared back. The smooth surface of the board almost like a mirror as it floated below him.

Izuku's bare feet met the frigid surface of the quicksteel, his control becoming more fine-tuned with the skin contact. A faint thrumming sound vibrated throughout his body from where his feet met the board. It was a minor indication of whenever he was particularly forceful with his quirk.

A burst of displaced air, and he was off!

It was the lack of friction that was so hard to get used to the first-time round. The concrete scraping under fast moving wheels, speed wobbles, the momentum gained by drifting into turns. These were _all_ things he used to measure and adjust his weight and balance while riding.

But in the air, and moving the board with his mind, he had none of that information to go off. He essentially had to relearn how to balance, something that had initially seemed impossible.

He'd figured it out eventually.

Izuku crouched into a speed tuck to maximize aerodynamics as he accelerated with his mind. Multitasking between controlling the board and balancing his own weight was another problem he ran into, but at least with that he'd already had practice moving his quirk in other ways. It had taken longer than he'd admit, but he'd eventually figured out how to _feel_ the location of the board in space, and use _that_ information to balance. It had taken years of practice, but Izuku finally felt comfortable enough to move at speeds comparable to his regular longboard.

But that was when he was on the beach! Over delightedly soft, definitely-not-concrete _sand. _Unfortunately, the hard planes and sharp angles of urban Musutafu were quite a bit more unforgiving, and even his helmet wouldn't really do much if he fell from even a couple feet off the ground.

But he needed the aerial view to see where Katsumi had gone! He wasn't sure what he'd say when he caught up to her, but he'd seen that look before. For months he'd had to look at it in the mirror every day.

But he'd worry about all that after he found her.

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku let out a whoop of joy as he zipped through a highway overpass skidding the tail end of his board against the sidewalk. The shower of sparks that was unleashed illuminated his face with a strobe-like orange light, but the whining, buzzsaw-like sound that echoed off the cement walls took the fun out of it pretty quickly. He zipped out of the tunnel and the world was bright with sunlight once more.

Izuku took to the skies, his heart pounding in his chest as the biting wind whipped his hair into his eyes. He kept the curly mess a bit longer than when he was younger, though he really wondered _why._ It was horribly impractical, especially for him.

Once he'd stopped worrying about being so high up, Izuku had taken to surfing through the air, or skyboarding as he'd been internally calling it, like white on rice. Izuku already had the instincts after all, he skated every single day.

After not finding Katsumi in the general vicinity of their school, Izuku resigned himself to missing the first day entirely. The situation might have been funny in any other context, both he and Kacchan's perfect attendance records would be broken on the same day.

Where could she have gone?

Not having any better ideas Izuku started checking all the places they used to hang out as kids. She might have gone home, but generally the girl didn't like talking to her mom when she was upset, not to mention having to explain why she was home so early on a school day. That discussion would come in time, but Izuku knew Katsumi would put it off until the very last minute to avoid the wrath of the Bakugo Matriarch for as long as possible.

He checked the playground that was the stage of many of their adventures together as children. It was within a few minutes walking distance of their house, but he found it abandoned save for a couple entertaining a young toddler on the swingset. Izuku grinned as the kid pointed and waved at him with a look of awe as Izuku flew overhead, his parents unaware. Gliding along the path that ran parallel to a shallow stream Izuku began to reminisce about all the time he'd spent chasing his friends up and down the massive park.

Back when he had them anyway.

He meant park in the loosest sense of the word. The sheer size of it was massive. Even looking from an aerial view as he was now, the grounds sprawled on for miles. It was the kind of place that could be both wonderous and terrifying for a child that age. They used to get lost for hours exploring every nook and cranny of the place. Every day brought a new adventure, all guided by the whims of a group of four year olds.

The grassy slope that lead to the stream grew sheer as Izuku traveled further into more overgrown parts of the land. He came across a rotted wooden bridge that crossed the stream and lead into a deeply forested area, the trees knotted and branching every which way.

Izuku had a good feeling about this next spot. He slowed to a stop, willing the board to the ground once more. Stepping back onto solid ground, Izuku wobbled on unsteady legs for a moment.

"Guess this is what sailors mean by 'sea legs' huh?" He took an uncertain step forward, following it up with another when his legs remained steady.

This spot was particularly familiar to the boy. He remembered vividly the day that he and Kacchan had first come here with some of their friends from school. She'd been dared by one of the boys to climb one of the tallest trees in the place. This was _before_ she'd gotten her quirk too.

Katsumi had done it in a heartbeat of course, always one to rise to a challenge even at that age. It was the first of many times they'd come back to the same tree. Even after Katsumi developed her quirk, Izuku knew for a fact she'd been back. He'd come from time to time as well, though they'd never gone together again after that day.

_That's_ why he couldn't let her leave while looking so defeated, not if he could do something about it.

Making his way through the trees, his quicksteel orb bobbed behind him idly. Izuku cut a familiar path through the undergrowth coming out to a clearing dominated by a massive oak tree. its branches were full of foliage and stretched across nearly the entire area.

Seated on a gnarled branch around twenty meters up the aged trunk was Katsumi. The little sun that made it through the canopy overhead speckled her platinum blonde hair with morning light.

"Couldn't keep your nose to yourself, eh Deku?" Her voice was hoarse, barely audible to the boy and lacked all the heat he knew she was capable of.

"You haven't called me that since the very first time, Kacchan, if you want me gone then you're going to have to do better than that."

She didn't answer, and the distant sound of a cicada chirping cut the silence like a sharpened blade.

"Can we talk?" he called up again, the words awkward after so many years silence.

She seemed to think for a moment. "Do what you want, but…" a bit of the familiar flare came to her eyes as she shot him a challenging smirk, "only if you come up here, Nerd."

Ah, so _that _was her angle. In the past Izuku would never had dared to climb so high up, often choosing to sit on a branch several meters below the much more daring girl.

A grin stole across his freckled face, if Kacchan thought that that would stop him now then she was in for a surprise. Silently, quicksteel molded itself into a disc, like the very first time he'd tried all those years ago. It lacked the streamline design of the board he'd ridden to the clearing but would serve to prove a point just as well as anything.

Izuku stood on the metallic platform, feeling it stiffen under his still-bare feet. He willed it to rise silently through the air, slowly coming to a stop once he was eye to eye with a wide-eyed and speechless Katsumi.

"You—your quirk…but—"

"_I'm _supposed to be the one with the stammering problem Kacchan," he said, chuckling lightly.

She turned away, that same look from before coming to her eyes. And… was she blushing? What the hell? "Will you tell me what's wrong?" Izuku decided to be blunt about it, people beating around the bush usually only annoyed the blonde.

She'd seemed surprised at that, stiffening slightly before glancing suspiciously in Izuku's direction. Her eyes lingered on the silvery platform holding him nearly twenty meters in the air, marveling at his ability.

"Your quirk, nerd… it's gotten stronger," she said, ignoring his request.

"Yeah well I've been practicing… a lot. And its been a while since you've been around, plus it took me a while to really figure it out myself. I'd liked to have had a few more years before _you_ got to see but but…" he trailed off, rubbing his arm nervously. Jeez, talk to her for two minutes and he's already rambling like he's four again.

"Wait, back the hell up," Katsumi's voice cut through the self-chiding thoughts. "Why would you want _me _to see it,"

"Oh well I didn't really mean any—"

"You _said_ 'you' specifically," she insisted, like a dog with a bone, "_why_?"

Izuku hesitated, he knew why- of course he did, but admitting _that_ to her? That after all these years of her ignoring his very existence that he still yearned for a sliver of that simple, easy friendship they'd had so long ago? That he still missed her every day?

That would be a _nightmare._

But that didn't change the fact that, here she was, talking to him like he'd asked her to, just like he'd imagined for all those lonely years, and she was expecting an answer. He couldn't lie, she'd know immediately; she always did, not that he'd had many occasions to lie to her in the first place. He couldn't run, as that would defeat the point of having chased her all the way out here in the first place.

So he was left with one option.

"Its just… I guess I sort of held some hope that I showed you I could be strong that… you might finally acknowledge me, and we could maybe, be friends again?"

The silence that stretched between the two was agonizing for Izuku.

Izuku looked up to meet her eyes once more only to blink in shock at something he had never seen before.

Katsumi sat with despair written across her disarmingly delicate features, and tears_, actual _tears pooling in her eyes as they returned to staring at the forest floor, meters below.

"No! don't you get it!? You're supposed to hate me! Yell at me, kick my ass like I deserve! You probably even _could _now right?!" She shouted, head still bowed. "I left you alone! You're not supposed to want to be my friend! The hell is _wrong_ with you?" She lashed out with a blazing palm, but Izuku deftly ducked under the blast. It was a surperficial attack at best, zero power or intent behind it.

Izuku had no idea what to do, this was a side of Kacchan that he'd never seen before. The anger was expected, but the wetness streaking her cheeks?

Yeah, that was a new one. Though he'd had a lot of experience with crying women from his mother, he was fairly sure that what calmed Inko would only serve to enrage the younger girl. What could even quality as the appropriate response here? He'd be the first to admit that he was way out of his depth with this one.

He stepped off his platform taking a seat on the branch next to his distraught friend. They merely sat in silence for a moment before he spoke up once more.

"I'm sorry that happened to you earlier," he said.

"The hell do ya mean, nerd?" she muttered under her breath, the change of subjects taking her by surprise.

"Those three guys from before? They—"

"Four."

"What?"

"There were four of them, one ditched the other three halfway through the fight, if you could even call it that." She scoffed, absentmindedly snapping a twig off a nearby branch. The show of confidence had Izuku feeling optimistic at the direction of their conversation.

"Right, four," he conceded. "I'm sorry you were ambushed like that."

The sound of fabric scratching against bark had him turning to meet crimson eyes staring back in shock. He let out a short bark of laughter. "What? Kacchan, give me some credit did you think I'd report you for bullying or something? I know you better than that." He winced as the words slipped past his mouth, unintentionally bringing up a sore topic for the both of them. Katsumi turned to face forward again, hanging her head.

"I know you were never part of it you know, the bullying," Izuku said quietly.

"I never stopped it either!"

"I learned to stand up for myself," he said simply, a smile tugging at his lips.

"You shouldn't have had too…" Katsumi whispered, her shoulders slumped. "Not alone."

He didn't really have an answer to that. Izuku wouldn't lie, losing her companionship had stung more than any of the name-calling or even the rare instances of physical abuse. No, the crushing sense of loneliness was certainly the sharpest weapon in that period of Izuku's life. The sounds of the forest filled the silence once more, life for the flora and fauna surrounding them so much simpler than the intricacies of human emotion.

"Was there a good reason at least?" Izuku asked. Of course, this was always something that tugged at the back of his mind in his rare moments of idle thought.

Why?

Why was he denied the company of his best friend for so long? Because he didn't have a quirk? What about after he did? Was he not good enough? After nearly a minute of silence, he thought she wouldn't answer.

ooOo Katsumi oOoo

_Was_ there a good reason? She had certainly felt like there was at the time, but hindsight had proved her plans to be little more than the ill-conceived delusions of a child.

"I was trying to keep you _alive_," she finally choked out, ignoring his wince at the broken tone of her voice. Selfless to a fault, even when he should hate her guts. "But… you tanked one my hits nerd. _Mine! _And you can fucking fly!" Her voice rose as her mind finally registered how he'd gotten up there in the first place. Katsumi had nearly had a damn heart attack when she opened her eyes and he'd been standing face to face with her.

"What do you mean you were trying to protect me?" Figures that this was the part he had latched onto immediately.

She looked away guiltily, but when she spoke, it was with conviction. This was the part of her argument that was entirely sound after all. "We watched hero videos all the time when were were brats, All Might never loses, but not everyone can _be_ All Might, right?" She had worked herself up as she spoke, giving impact to her words with explosive gestures. "Heroes die every day and that's _with_ a powerful quirk. And for a while we thought you didn't even _have_ one! How could I let you run off to get yourself killed?!"

But as sudden as it came, all the energy left her, and she deflated like a punctured balloon. "That's what I thought at the time at least, I thought you'd give it all up if everyone was telling you it was impossible, but I should've known better." Her eyes met his own with something she'd always tried to hide behind a mask of indifference: admiration. "You would've found a way to be a hero even this thing hadn't ever showed up, wouldn't you?" She sighed with fond exasperation, though her eyes narrowed at the seemingly innocuous glob of metal floating overhead. She frowned as it halted, vibrating in place aggressively. That usually meant-

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't assume what's best for me without asking Kacchan."

She broke her observation of the metal hearing the heat in Izuku's tone, only to flinch at the sight of his clenched jaw and the tears welling in his eyes.

She'd done that. Brought the kindest person she knew to tears with her actions. Platinum blonde bangs fell over her eyes as her head dropped once more in shame. God she was acting like a fucking wimp today.

Right as she started contemplating taking a leap off the branch in the hopes that the ground might swallow her up whole, she felt a warm pair of arms wrap around her comfortingly.

"You overlooked something in your plan." Izuku mumbled, breath tickling her neck. Katsumi almost didn't register his words, so overwhelmed was she at his casual display of affection. "_You_ never told me I couldn't be a hero."

Katsumi froze. So he'd forgive her just like that? After all these years—

She had forgotten for a moment who she was talking about. Forgotten that being selfless and forgiving came as naturally as breathing for the boy before her.

For a moment she'd felt like it would be taking advantage of his kind nature by accepting Izuku's easy forgiveness, but decided even quicker that she didn't care, indulging quietly in the comfort of the embrace.

"The hell said you could hug me?" she muttered halfheartedly. He didn't comment on the fact that she hadn't pulled away in the slightest. "You're going to be a great hero… Izuku."

He stilled. "Not number one?"

Cheeky bastard.

"Nah, that spot's still mine, nerd."


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I find myself looking up shit I'd never even concern myself with if I wasn't writing about it. Do you guys know what capillary action is? 'Cus I do now! It's a fancy name for wicking, and deals with a liquid's ability to flow through a narrow space in opposition of external forces, (like gravity). It's what causes some liquids to soak into fabrics the way they do, it's really traveling through the spaces _between_ the thread. Most relevantly, some liquids, (like Mercury), have internal forces that are stronger than the surface tension and adhesion to the other material, and nearly incapable of capillary action. I'll leave you alone to guess why I needed to figure that out in the first place :] I'll give a hint: It was for a chapter you won't see for a while.**

**If any of you are writers yourselves, have you ever had to look up something random like this for your own work before? Let me know in the reviews.**

**Alright, that's enough learning for today. This chapter is not too action-centric, but I really like it all the same. I've combed through it several times, but I still feel like I'm missing some errors, so let me know if you catch anything please.**

**Enjoy.**

Chapter 4

And Time Goes On

ooOo Katsumi oOoo

She'd been suspended. For a _week_.

Even worse, they'd suspended fucking D- Izuku too, and _he _hadn't even _done_ anything!

Apparently Ushiwaka Ikai, the… unfortunate victim of her _demonstration_, was the son of one of the higher ups with the school district. Even the idiot instigating the fight hadn't been enough to get her out of punishment.

And what the fuck was a zero-tolerance policy?! The principal had pulled whatever _that _was out of his ass for sure. That, along with destruction of public property and an unauthorized usage of quirks on school property, had been enough to push for the suspension.

As if they'd ever fucking enforced that rule before. What a joke.

She grinned. At least that punk, Ikai, had gone down with her, serving an equally severe punishment. It was a step back on her path to U.A., but that only meant she'd need to be even more flawless when she finally applied.

Unfortunately, but certainly not unexpectedly her mother hadn't seen it the same way.

Katsumi had the misfortune of walking through the front door right when the school called her home phone to relay the news of her suspension. Mitsuki hadn't torn into her like that in _years_, but curiously, the Bakugo mother relented after Katsumi had mentioned she'd spent some of the morning ditching with Izuku. The old hag had always doted on the kinder boy like a son, always giving Katsumi shit about playing nice with him.

But letting her get away with something so huge?! Apparently, she had underestimated just how much her mother and Aunty Inko wanted their kids to get along.

Which brought her to her current predicament: standing outside the Midoriya apartment, with absolutely _zero_ clue on how to proceed.

Just... _knock_?

No, couldn't do _that, _that was a _nightmare_. How could she even contemplate being so brazen as to-

No… wait, she was Bakugo motherfucking Katsumi and she could go to her friend's house if she damn well pleased!

"Are you going to stand out there all day, hun?"

"AHH!" Katsumi let out a shriek, a small gout of flame reflexively leaving her palm.

"Oh, that _is _quite impressive, dear." At the door stood Midoriya Inko, wielding the same kind eyes and sunny disposition as her son. Though this time they were widened slightly in amazement. "Izuku is always raving about it, so its nice to finally see it in person."

"W-what?" Katsumi stuttered out. Ugh, she was doing that _way _too much lately. What was Aunty Inko talking about again?.

Inko seemed to stare right through her, leaving her feeling small in a completely different but no less effective way than her own mother. Her comment also made her realize that in distancing herself from Izuku, she had also deprived herself of the lovely woman standing in front of her.

"Your quirk, Katsumi-chan," Inko said.

"Oh! yeah," she said, breaking eye contact and holding out an open palm making it spark and pop with a thought. It was the way she'd always show people her quirk when meeting them for the first time. Katsumi had always found it funny to introduce such a destructive power with a glorified party trick.

But the fact that Inko hadn't even seen her use her quirk yet was like a punch to the gut.

She felt arms wrap around her in a tight embrace. "It's good to see you after so long Katsumi-chan."

_Oh, _so this's what she was missing.

"Yeah, you too, Aunty Inko."

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Hmm, I'm a bit disappointed, nerd, there's not _nearly_ enough All Might merch for a fanboy of your caliber," Katsumi said, peering around his room curiously.

Was she weirded out? No that wasn't it, but for some reason Izuku was nervous about having Katsumi alone in here. Things were simple as four-year olds, but _this _Katsumi was older, and much more unfamiliar to him. He'd talked a big game the day of the fight, but now, without emotions flying high, he was having trouble deciding how he should act.

He eyed the girl as she shamelessly explored his room, quicksteel twirled in place with his pensive mood. Katsumi was looking more and more like a slenderer version of her mother every day. He'd sometimes heard his classmates make fun of her 'boyish' haircut, never in the blonde's hearing range of course. But in his opinion, they couldn't have been more wrong, he'd always though it suited her. In fact, her whole outfit today was particularly flattering as simple as it was. she looked really cute in th—

Holy shit, Kacchan was a _girl._

This may have seemed like an obvious observation, but to Izuku it came with a whole host of other issues. Primarily: he had a _girl _in his _room_. What could be ignored as a toddler was all too apparent as almost-teenagers, as Izuku had already had a particularly embarrassing talk on the subject with his mother just a few months previously.

Luckily, Katsumi seemed preoccupied enough with her investigation to notice his miniature breakdown.

Deeps breaths, Izuku, you _know _her. It was just like when they were kids… except he'd been yearning for her to see him as an equal for years… and now she was probably the prettiest girl he kne—

No! stop, stop, st-

He snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Katsumi rifling through a box of his old manga volumes, the ones they'd sit in his room looking at for hours as kids.

The furniture hadn't really changed all that much since she'd last seen it, but it was the décor that was the real difference.

She'd already known about his obsession with heroes of course, since she'd kind-of started it. He still remembered the day Katsumi had told him all about what a hero was. She was most likely just repeating something her mother had told her. But the next day Izuku had come over, having spent the previous night _begging_ his mother to help him watch hero videos online. Katsumi had proclaimed him a hero nerd for the very first time, before they launched into a discussion about who their favorites were. Or, in Kacchanese: which hero kicked the most butt.

There _were_ All Might posters of course, not to mention a couple figurines of the muscular hero at choice locations around his room. But as Izuku had gotten more proficient at tracking heroes over the years, he'd started documenting them in ways other than his hero notebooks. Primarily, taking snapshots of them in action.

The entire wall over his computer desk was ordered chaos. From action shots of local heroes stopping petty crime, to evacuation pros handling large scale disasters, the evidence was plastered all over the wall. He'd never invade a pro's privacy of course, only taking shots when they were both in-costume and on the job.

Becoming a bit self-conscious as Katsumi continued to stare at the photos dominating the walls, Izuku felt obligated to offer some kind of explanation. "I… uh, get around a lot," he said lamely.

She stilled for a second, not turning to face him. "Yeah, no kidding, being able to fly must make that a breeze," she said, turning to give him a look.

Izuku shook his head with a grin, "I'm not that daring, Kacchan, you should know that. If some kid started flying around the city on floating metal board it might draw a bit too much attention."

She scoffed, "Damn cops'll let you get away with using your quirk to travel if it's weak, but if it's flashy like ours there's no chance." Her fingers fondled the air as sparks danced across her palms like she was remembering a particularly unpleasant situation.

_Ours? _Katsumi had said it so nonchalantly, but she _had_ to have known what phrasing it like that meant to Izuku. Equating his quirk to her own level was the greatest compliment she could have given him. He didn't acknowledge it though, he knew she'd prefer it that way.

"Yup, that's what the longboard was for initially," he said, suppressing the grin threatening to split his face. "I needed to practice my balance but couldn't use my quirk so blatantly around the city."

"And last Wednesday?"

That was true… Izuku had mixed feelings about the fight from three days ago. On one hand, the brawl and its aftermath had directly led to Katsumi and him talking again. This was something he hadn't even dared to hope for, only to avoid the disappointment when it never came to be.

But on the other hand, he'd been suspended due to a technicality. By stepping in and stopping Kacchan's explosion, he'd _technically_ been a part of the fight. Zero-tolerance policies really were a bitch.

Izuku almost wished he let her knock that idiot silly. After all, he'd known she'd been ambushed from the get-go, Katsumi didn't go looking for fights, she just finished them when kids wanted to take on 'the prodigy'. The only reason he'd even stepped in was because he knew she sometimes got caught up in the moment. He knew she'd regret taking things too far, or at least the _consequences _of taking things too far. Since they'd both been suspended anyway, he shouldn't have bothered.

But that wasn't the thinking of a hero, and Izuku hadn't actually had the time to think before he moved. He hadn't thought that the older boy he'd saved from Katsumi's rage would rat him out along with her though. Though in the long run it wasn't surprising, he'd learned long ago that even those aspiring to be heroes were still human. They were capable of jealousy and greed, and indeed, they could be cruel.

"That…that was a special circumstance," he said after a moment.

She hummed noncommittally, peering at some of the hand-drawn diagrams pinned throughout all the photos and posters. "What about these?"

"The first designs for my skyboard," Izuku said joining her in front of the drawing. "I can't really make things on the fly, so I have to plan them out ahead of time then practice until it's second nature. I haven't really had time to test it much in the city, but even after the short time I had the other day, there are some things I'd like to twe—"

"What does your quirk _really _do nerd?" Katsumi said suddenly, cutting off his lapse in focus. She tried to be nonchalant, but Izuku could tell she was _burning _with curiosity. "Trying to take me head on was reckless," she added softly. "You trynna' die?"

Izuku couldn't help but laugh at that, "And here I thought you pulled that explosion to avoid hurting the guy, was I mistaken? Would he have _died_ if I didn't block it?"

"Shut up nerd, I ain't that soft," she scowled.

He stopped his laughter but retained his smile. Under that prickly exterior she really was, but he'd let it go for now.

"As for what I can do…" he brought his palms up at waist level, metallic orb revolving slowly in between. "I call it quicksteel, and it's quite a bit more useful than we'd _both_ initially thought," he said, grinning at Katsumi's narrowed eyes.

Izuku ceased the orb's movement before separating four smaller spheres from the central mass, commanding them to wiz around each other in the imitation of an atom. "At first I could only move it around and it always stayed a liquid." Katsumi prodded suspiciously at the quicksteel, frowning as it wobbled in place.

"So you can harden it then?" she bit out.

"Essentially, but there's a step in between," Izuku said, enjoying keeping the girl in suspense.

"Just spit it out nerd I don't got all day,"

"We're _both _suspended, Kacchan, where could you have to go?" he laughed.

"Shut up! just tell me already," Katsumi fumed.

Izuku grinned but conceded. "For some reason I can manipulate the tempurature of the material itself... Whether it's an ability I got from my dad's flamebreath quirk or something else, I'm not really sure." Izuku pinched his thumb to the middle and forefingers of both hands then stretched his arms apart, the quicksteel thinning and lengthening in response. He snatched the newly formed rod out of the air, solidifying it as his skin made contact. He twirled it slowly between his hands.

"Lower it under its melting point, and it turns to a solid," he said, holding the quicksteel staff aloft with a smile. "I can only make basic weapons right now, but most of my training was focused on _this," _he liquified the staff and coated his hand like a second skin, flexing his fingers experimentally. "Well, this and learning to skyboard, but that was just me being selfish," he said a bit self-consciously

"Tch—Hero nerd," Katsumi said under her breath, "That's pretty fuckin cool."

Praise? From _Kacchan? _

"Oi, quit smiling so much, its creepy as hell,"

He tried, he really did.

For the next couple of hours, they fell into a familiar routine, hanging out and catching up with what they've missed of each other after all of these years.

Izuku wasn't surprised to learn that Katsumi had started learning Muay Thai, thinking it would complement her quirk better than other martial arts. He agreed, especially after she'd demonstrated a few simple katas for him. The concentration on elbow and knee blows could be enhanced with explosions from her palms, and maybe even the bottoms of her feet. It was an idea she'd apparently toyed with in the past, but the sweat glands on her feet weren't capable of secreting her explosive yet.

The thought was intriguing to say the least. Could her sweat glands be expanded? It made sense for her to be capable sending explosions from her feet as well. Izuku's quirk had undergone many stages since it had appeared, so he was confident someone like Katsumi would figure hers out no sweat.

Well… not really but you know…

Izuku had eagerly regaled her with the tales of an up and coming hero that had made an impressive showing at the most recent UA sports festival. He'd dedicated practically an entire _chapter_ to the rookie's quirk: Arbor. Izuku would never expect her to share the same enthusiasm he had for quirk analysis but honestly, just having her tolerate it was enough. She even appeared interested at some points, especially when he brought up some clips from the finals. She'd agreed that Nishiya Shinji would most likely be a popular hero when he made his debut.

His mom called them for dinner not too much later, and Katsumi was treated to his mother's famous Katsudon for the first time in years. Izuku couldn't help but laugh as she flooded her bowl with extra-spicy sauce, and that was _after_ his mom had made Katsumi's breading with hot chili flakes.

They'd scarfed down their own portions, both having a second round as well. It _was_ Izuku's favorite dish after all.

Before he knew it, he was watching his first friend's retreating frame as she walked towards the stairs of his apartment complex. "You're sure you don't want me to walk you home?"

"Jeez, let it go, nerd, its just around the block," she sighed, rubbing at her nose.

"Alright then, see you Monday."

"I'm suspended until Wednesday," she said drily.

Oops. "Wednesday then," he said with a laugh.

Katsumi paused at the stairs that led to the first floor of Izuku's apartment complex. "You want to see my mom too right?" she said, glancing away after a moment.

"Huh?"

"You can come over tomorrow, she's been asking about you." Katsumi shot him a glare without any heat, "Just come over around noon, nerd."

And with that she stomped off with a huff, making her way down the stairs complex.

Izuku kept an eye on her retreating form until she was just about to disappear around the corner, uncomfortable with letting her walk home in the dark no matter what she said.

A buzz from his pocket interrupted his thoughts, a message from Katsumi? She'd just given him her number earlier today after she'd found out he actually _owned_ a cellphone.

**Kacchan [8:23 pm]: quit starin nerd its creepin me out**

Izuku slumped against the wall by the door of his apartment. So cruel….

oooOoOoOooo

"So why the hell haven't you pounded those idiots yet anyway?"

"What?" Izuku said, not following the abrupt question.

It had been two weeks since the day Katsumi had visited his house for the day, and though it wasn't as obvious as when they were children, they'd spent nearly every day together in some capacity since then. He had indeed been welcomed with open arms by Aunty Mitsuki when he'd visited the next day and was still puzzling out her brash proclamation as he'd walked through the doors.

She'd been 'glad Katsumi finally grew a pair,' whatever that meant, and wrapped him into a tight hug. The fact that she had inadvertently planted his face right into her generous cleavage had been an interesting start to the visit. Izuku may have improved his social skills a bit, but he'd still been sporting an atomic blush as Katsumi practically kicked him up the stairs to her room. Family friend she may be, but Bakugo Mitsuki was still drop dead gorgeous on her worst day.

"Oi Deku! Quit zoning out!"

Izuku hid a smile. Last weekend Kacchan had brought up the fact that he still called her by 'that dumb nickname', calling it childish. He'd knew he'd never have been able to call her Katsumi after so long, so he'd doubled down instead.

She'd flipped out when he told her to call him Deku. But how could he _not_ like that name? It was a nickname _she'd _given him, and she'd never said it with any bad intention. Katsumi caved surprisingly easy after he'd voiced his reasoning.

"What was the question again?"

"The extras, why haven't you beat em down yet?" she huffed.

"Ah… they hardly bother me anymore, so what's the point?"

"The point is to show them the difference between us and the commoners," she said, punching her fist in her palm with an explosion. "I don't know why you don't at least show off your quirk, they'd probably back the fuck off if they even _knew _what you could do."

That… actually made a lot of sense. Izuku paused for a moment before replying. It was something he'd found helped with his stuttering problem when he was younger, which had often resulted from feeling rushed to get his point across. Simply taking a step back to think about what he had to say helped immensely.

"I just… I guess since I've been keeping it to myself for so long that it would feel weird to flaunt it." He rushed to clarify, seeing her about to interject, "It's not like I'm afraid to stand up to them. It's just… our goal is UA right? So I don't really have anything to gain by winning them over. I don't really know how to explain it right," he said frowning in thought.

"No, I understand perfectly," she said nodding seriously. "The extras aren't worth your time."

"Kacchan that's not wh—"

"Relax, Deku, we've only got six more years of this shit then we're outta here." She stuffed her hands into the big pouch of her white hoodie, as if the matter was settled.

He sighed. Convincing the prideful girl to see her classmates as any more than stepping stones was not a chore Izuku was willing to undertake. He instead carved back and forth as much as the narrow boardwalk allowed while still keeping pace with a walking Katsumi. The gentle sway of the motion eased his mind as he simply enjoyed the constant growl of wheels on concrete.

It took a mere five more minutes to reach their destination. The towering piles of mechanical junk loomed over the pair as they plodded through the soft sand of Dagobah Municipal Beach.

"What are we doing here, nerd?" Katsumi bit out from his side.

"This is where I've done the majority of my quirk training," he explained, squeezing his way through an opening in the junk heap. The path opened up into a clearing that spanned around a third of the beach. "Welcome to my humble slice of paradise," he drawled theatrically. He turned to a see a wide-eyed Katsumi admiring the beautiful horizon. The sun lit up her hair so it glowed like liquid fire. She seemed a bit ethereal in that moment, mesmerized as she was by the sight.

Izuku was as well.

"You did all this?" Katsumi said after a moment.

He coughed into a fist trying cover how he'd been staring. "Every weekend for sixish hours a day. Not that it was all spent clearing the beach." He waved dismissively, "I've experimented too and practiced flying over the sand."

She seemed lost in thought but eventually spoke up, eyes resolute. "Why are we here?"

"I actually need your help testing something." He said and Katsumi perked up in interest. "When I blocked your explosion before, I felt really drained afterwards." He clenched his fist, pondering the cause. "It was weird because my quirk had never had any drawbacks like that before and I wanted to find out why."

"Don't you think it would be stranger if you _didn't _have a drawback to your quirk nerd? You of all people should know how emitter types work."

He nodded along with her point. "I'd always written it off as a side effect of my quirk's mutation from my mothers. If I had simple telekinesis it would be strange to have no side effects from overuse. But the quicksteel itself is a _part _of my quirk, and my telekinesis is limited to that mass of metal alone, not to mention it's grown along with my body." Izuku paused to think for a moment. "I thought that might have warranted a mutant classification, where physical drawbacks from overuse are less common." He shrugged, "guess I was wrong."

Izuku ignored her muttered 'hero nerd' in favor of taking several paces away and turning to face her. He placed a palm on his quicksteel, molding it into a simple convex shield. He willed it through the air to face Katsumi, brushing just the tips of his fingers along the interior. He found that at his current level just a touch was enough to keep quicksteel in its solid state and braced in place.

"Think you can give me a blast around the same strength as before?" He gave her a confident grin over the top of his shield.

"Don't get cocky, Deku," she said with a fierce smile. Katsumi didn't even hesitate as she strode forward, a flexed palm flickering with tiny sparks.

She dashed the last few steps, unleashing a vicious explosion that rung like a gong against his quicksteel. Fire and sand filled his vision as the force of the blast upset the ground beneath them. His shield held strong, but he once more felt that same fatigue come over him.

That was expected, and part of the reason they were there in the first place.

"Tch- not even a dent huh?" Katsumi drawled, rapping her knuckles against his shield. "Alright then see if you can handle _this."_

"Kacchan wait!" She froze with an arm cocked back, air around her fist blurring from the heat.

"Ugh what now?"

"That was just a baseline, I need you to reduce the heat in the next explosion but keep the power the same… you can do that right?"

"It's creepy that you know that, nerd."

Izuku shrugged, "I've seen you fight enough at school, I think I have a decent handle on your abilities." He was downplaying that a bit. Kacchan's hero entry took up as many pages as some of the top ten in his hero analysis journals.

She sighed. "Fine, same power, low heat. You ready nerd?"

A nod from Izuku and she let loose once more, a hissed "_die!"_ slipping from her lips as a sharp crack echoed over the beach. Izuku actually had to brace his forearm against the disk slightly, the power behind the blast formidable enough to force him back a bit.

Just as he had suspected, the drain this time was not nonexistent, but significantly lower than before. He'd been pondering the cause of the strange fatigue since the day it had first occurred. Why did blocking Katsumi's explosions drain him so much when he could haul refrigerators for hours without rest? The only explanation that he could come up with was the thermoregulatory aspect of his quirk. Solidifying quicksteel required him to cool it to a temperature below its melting point, which fortunately was slightly higher than water's. Under normal conditions cooling quicksteel to a measly five degrees Celsius was effortless with skin contact and even without he could now even pick up small objects.

The problem came when external heat was introduced to the equation, ie. Katsumi's explosions. In this case, Izuku now had to expend energy to keep quicksteel at a constant temperature in order to retain its solid state.

_That's_ where the drain came from. It was a subtle limitation to his power but would be a fatal weakness against the right opponent.

"So?! You've got your answer eh Deku?" Katsumi's voice cut through his thoughts. "You've got that stupid look on your face."

He smiled, "Yeah, thanks, Kacchan, I guess we can go now."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up just a fucking second, you think you can just show me you can take some of my stronger hits, on a beach away from noise complaints, and you think you're just gonna walk away with two hits. I don't fuckin think so." Her palms glistened in the sunlight and Izuku caught the cloying scent of burnt sugar on the breeze.

What had he gotten himself into?

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"How about Dyno-_might?_" Izuku asked, and with a glance she confirmed that, yes, he _was _being serious.

"Deku, I didn't think it was possible, but you may have just out-nerded yourself, I'm not gonna be a hero with such a lame-ass name.

Of course, he was undeterred, scratching his chin in thought as he tried to come up with another title. He'd been at it all morning as they walked to school together. Well, _she_ walked, Izuku just coasted by her side on his board as usual.

She'd made an offhand comment that she appreciated the simplicity of All Might's hero name, which had led to her current headache.

"What about _Die-_nomite," he muttered under his breath.

She paused, that actually wasn't that bad.

"Kacchan, I wasn't _serious_, you cant have a hero name like that!"

She cackled merrily, "Then don't suggest a name if you don't like it!"

It had been nearly a year since they had started talking again and Katsumi couldn't remember a time in her admittedly short life where she had laughed so freely. She couldn't pinpoint one particular cause, but Izuku seemed to brighten all aspects of her day in a way. He was the friend she'd missed, the rival she never had, and with the way he sometimes looked at her, she thought there might be something else. But each time her mind strayed to such dangerous territory, she quickly nipped that kind of thinking in the bud. There was no way he'd ever look at her like a… _girl_, not with her brash personality, foul mouth and violent streak a mile long.

She turned to see him scribbling in a familiar notebook, however this one looked battered and worn with age. "What have you got _here_?" With lightening precision, she snatched the book out of his hands, laughing at his indignant squawk. He seemed to sigh with resignation as she peered curiously at the cover. "Volume one? I thought you had a gazillion of these things filled, why are you writing in volume one?"

He hesitated slightly. "Well… I was writing all the names I could come up with so I didn't forget them."

"Yeah and?" she pressed.

He looked at her as if she was missing something obvious. "Who do you think was the first entry in my notes?"

_Oh. _A warm _something _welled within her before she silently opened the notebook to the first page. At the top was the title just like every other entry in his hero notes:

Subject: Bakugo Katsumi

Quirk: Explosion

Following was the most comprehensive breakdown of her abilities she had ever seen. The pages following had obviously been edited and amended several times over the years. Sticky notes were plastered to the pages with additional information as it was discovered.

Unconfirmed theories followed, and she wasn't surprised that many of them were spot on. The nerd _was_ usually right about that kind of stuff. Interspersed throughout the factual analysis was the odd personal commentary from Izuku himself, most of it incredibly flattering to the blonde girl. She knew her quirk was powerful, but she also had the perspective of how much work was put into the finesse she wielded it with. To have that effort acknowledged left her with a strange fuzzy feeling in her gut.

She... didn't hate it.

"It's fuckin creepy that you know more about my quirk than I do, nerd." That's what she said, but she couldn't quite hide the flush that she felt warm her cheeks.

"Creepy?! Kacchan, you know it's not like that!"

She snickered at how his voice cracked with indignation, turning back to the notes that actually had a few good ideas she had yet to try. The 'tentative hero name' section was worth a good laugh, with gems on the level of 'Nitro-glistenin' or 'Da-Bomb' scrawled and crossed out across the page. Though names like, 'Ignitro,' or 'Ground Zero' were filed away for further thought. She hid a grin at the realization that Deku had been fucking messing with her, only mentioning the shittiest names he could think of.

But it was when she reached the next section that she paused.

"Possible mutations?" she said, somewhat afraid to ask. She noticed Izuku perk up a bit at her interest. Was he really so starved for attention? She'd have to be more blatant with her praise from now on. Katsumi knew she could come off as cold, but Izuku at least deserved more effort from her.

"Yeah," he started enthusiastically. "Even if your quirk isn't a mutant type, there are still ways that your body adapts to use your power safely."

"Right, like how Endeavor doesn't torch himself?"

Izuku nodded, "Right in one. In your case, you probably have something like higher bone density, or some kind of alteration to your musculature." He paused, looking over at her as he rolled along. "To handle the kickback… ya' know?"

She glanced back to the pages of the notebook. "Constricted pupils? The hell's that supposed to mean?"

Izuku rolled to a stop in front of her, wide, jade eyes peering curious into her own.

God he had changed, the nerd could never meet her eyes for too long before. Always staring at his shoes, head hung for some reason unknown to her. But curiously, it was _her_ that had the urge to look away in embarrassment.

His eyes were really pretty.

"That was just a guess," he said cracking a smile. "Our pupils constrict when they're exposed to extreme light, I think yours are particularly small to handle the constant flashes." With that he rolled away, leaving her frozen in the middle of the street.

That was the day Katsumi realized that Izuku _really_ payed attention.

oooOoOoOooo

The day that Endeavor burned down half of the Musutafu shopping center was a wakeup call for Katsumi.

Granted, it wasn't exactly clear who'd caused the majority of the damage. A villain with a emitter quirk that allowed him to boost his agility by expelling fire from his feet, had been on some kind of mass shoplifting spree from the various storefronts, all while wreaking havoc on the general populous. It was the kind of lawbreaking that would disrupt your day but otherwise be written off as petty crime.

Unfortunately, the situation had escalated when Endeavor had arrived on the scene and attempted to apprehend the criminal. By the time Katsumi had tuned into the livestreams broadcasting the situation there were several buildings already engulfed in flames and several more following quickly. It was with intrigued horror that Katsumi watched from the safety of her room as people trampled each other to escape the burning plaza.

The villain was eventually captured, but by that point the damage had been done, and most of it not by him. Endeavor was already facing public backlash, his careless pursuit of a relatively minor villain causing millions in property damage. Even his number two spot on the billboards was coming into question. The already palpable outrage from the endangered shoppers and their families was only twisted and exaggerated

To add insult to injury, Izuku had come racing into her room soot smudged and exhausted, asking If she'd seen the news. Apparently, he'd been passing by while chasing down another hero when shit hit the fan.

Of course she'd seen the damn news! But what the hell had the nerd been doing down there? His dismissive explanation that he'd only been helping get people out of danger hadn't calmed her in the slightest, nor did she believe his insistence that he wasn't even using his quirk. Though that may have been her worry asserting its presence. The whole situation was reminding her of why she hadn't wanted him to be a hero in the first place. He was hardly defenseless anymore and didn't need her to worry for him. Not that she would ever stop.

But perhaps most impactful of all was the realization that for all of Endeavor's power, some quirks were simply not suited for certain situations. In the most literal sense of the phrase, fighting fire with fire would most certainly lead to someone getting burned...

She'd always held her own quirk in the highest regard, feeling it was both versatile and powerful enough to handle any situation. But evidence to the contrary was currently staring her in the face. What was truly terrifying was how easily that _could_ have been her, a hero that was undisputedly _strong_ yet completely helpless to offer aide. That idea had wedged itself in her psyche, self-doubt plaguing her thoughts. It had gotten to the point where Izuku had notice something was up as they sat together finishing their homework for the following school day.

She was glad that he took some time to really consider her worries, rather than offer useless platitudes like nearly _anyone_ else would have.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that, Kacchan,"

"What are you talking about nerd? Were you watching the same thing I wa—"

"I was," he said abruptly, and Katsumi was startled by the steel in his eyes. "I was there, remember? There were plenty of injuries, luckily nothing particularly lethal but it was a shit situation all around."

"Then why—"

"Your quirk is more versatile than Endeavor's for one. You can already adjust the destructive capabilities of your explosions, not to mention you can use them purely for mobility," he said simply.

That was true, she could tweak her secretions to have more heat or concussive force and had been practicing practically since she first _got _her quirk.

"But more importantly," Katsumi looked up from her math homework to face her friend once more. "More importantly, you're already thinking about the consequences of such careless quirk use." He grinned, "that alone makes me think that you won't run into the same problems."

She deflated a bit. Maybe she'd been worried for nothing, but when the hell had Izuku gotten so wise?

She rifled through her box of green tea pocky and stuck out two sticks to her friend while looking the other way with a scowl.

"You're welcome, Kacchan!" He said happily, grabbing one of the treats, leaving the other for her.

"The hell is that supposed to mean, nerd?" She refused to acknowledge the heat that rose to her cheeks, she'd been telling the old hag to fix the thermostat for ages. It wasn't her fault that no one listened to her around here.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Just finished the cover image for this fic so you can see that above. My socials are in my profile if you want to see the full resolution image. I might post more fanart of my fics there as well (is it still fanart then?) or other unrelated stuffs. **

**Now onto the chapter!**

** I did say this was AU right?**

**_…right?_**

Chapter 5

Blade dance

oooOo Izuku oOooo

It was during the summer of his first year at Aldera High that Izuku finally committed to something he'd been putting off for a long while. _With _good reason.

He was _finally_ at the age where weight training wouldn't permanently damage his growing body. Rather than pushing his proficiency with his quirk any further, he instead shifted his focus to building the natural strength of his body.

At first, it was like starting his training all over again. Not to mention it was a harsh reminder that despite the imitation strength granted by his quirk, he was still a fairly thin young man. Sure, he was athletic enough from the constant riding around the city, but he wasn't even close to a hero's level of fitness. Not the kind of hero _he _wanted to be anyway.

So, for the remaining third of Dagobah beach that was still covered in junk, Izuku began hauling using only his body's natural strength. Having started during summer break, Izuku at least had time to acclimate to his new schedule before the school year resumed.

The first few weeks were agony to the aspiring hero, and he found himself crawling into bed unable to do much else at the end of each day.

His limbs, as well as the muscles and ligaments that moved them, hadn't really had experience lifting any seriously heavy loads, leaving Izuku's body no stronger than any other child his age may have been. He still had his active lifestyle to fall back on, but from the standpoint of sheer power, he was certainly lacking.

The first days were rough but eventually, he made progress.

School started again, and his workouts were restricted to before and after class within reason. His mother would never let him live it down if his grades fell as a result of his heroic pursuits. Katsumi and he both hung out when they could, finding that they were both focused on their own training now that the UA entrance exam was more of a reality than just a far-off goal. But even then, they manage to meet for joint training sessions whenever Katsumi wasn't busy with her martial arts.

The more time Izuku spent with the girl, the more he realized his feelings toward his best friend may have been less than platonic, not that it was any amazing realization. Even as a toddler when romantic thoughts were the furthest thing from his mind, Katsumi was always someone to be admired. But as that fiery blonde child had grown into a beautiful young woman before his eyes, how could he help but be enamored with her? With those striking crimson irises that glowed like embers when the light hit them _just _right.

Was it wrong to push her buttons slightly just to have that smoldering glare leveled at him every now and then? Perhaps… but he couldn't find it in himself to regret it.

With so many emotions running through his mind, how could he _not _have such puzzling thoughts for her?

That afternoon, Katsumi was again busy with her Muay Thai classes leaving Izuku ample time for such idle thoughts as he watched the sun set over the nearly pristine horizon of Dagobah beach. Once he had gotten used to the strenuous routine, his progress had been steady, and after several months of manually hauling trash, he had nearly cleared the remaining garbage that had once marred the west side of the beach. Other than the larger vehicles and awkwardly shaped hunks of metal he couldn't manage to lift the beach was nearly devoid of trash, and the result was astounding.

Izuku could hardly recognized the place! This had all started as a _training_ exercise! He would never in a million years believed himself capable of coming close to what he'd accomplished. He leaned back in against his latest conquest, a broken-down washing machine by the looks of it, and took a rare moment to relax before he resumed his demanding training.

But so captured was he by the nearly cleared skyline, Izuku missed the pair of attentive eyes trailing his form curiously.

oooOoOoOooo

"Boy... Here you stand clearing the waste of others, yet ask for no reward… Why?"

Izuku paused his set of suicides, having added extra drills in between loads as the junk littering the beach grew sparser, and turned to the man who had spoken. The voice was raspy, as if it hadn't been used in years, but it seemed to suit its owner in away, now that Izuku got a better look at him.

His presence seemed to fill the beach despite standing with a distinct hunch, not much taller than Izuku's fairly average 165cm. He stood perched on a tower of broken-down cars, like a gargoyle guarding some ancient gothic church. The breeze blew his black, knotted hair revealing a sharp, angular face and a thick bandage wrapped around his head. It covered the space between his misshapen gash of a mouth and bloodshot dark red eyes.

An old injury perhaps? Or maybe it was to cover a part of his quirk he found unappealing? A quirked society they may be, but prejudice unfortunately remained rampant. Even with race and other social categories being muddled by the infinite mutations that quirks made possible, people undoubtedly found a way to be spiteful to others who were different.

The stranger's clothes were nondescript when compared to his physical features. The plain black cargo pants and a sleeveless tank top he wore revealed a corded musculature that seemed out of place on his relatively slender frame.

It was the single battered katana that hung sheathed at the man's side however, that gave Izuku pause. He resembled no hero that Izuku knew of, but that didn't really mean much, there were thousands of new applicants for hero licenses every year in Japan, it would be absurd to expect to keep track of every single student that passed, not that he'd ever let that stop him from trying.

But something about the man screamed _danger_, despite his relaxed posture.

That was another thing, the man had seemingly shown up out of nowhere, but knew Izuku had been cleaning the beach. Sure, he could guess such information from watching for an hour or so, but assuming he cleaned the _entire _beach? Why was he there? For how long?

"Answer me, boy," The man spoke up, taking a lurching step towards Izuku. The metal spire he stood upon creaked ominously.

His instincts urged him to answer for some reason, and Izuku obliged seeing no harm in the information.

"I want to be a hero."

Something changed in the man's expression. "Ah… Is that so?" Izuku was surprised such a hoarse voice could sound so delicate. He spoke as if trying to grasp a concept that was utterly foreign to him.

Another perilous step.

Izuku's blood seemed to freeze in his veins, a gripping, unrelenting fear filling his being. The air seemed to turn to sludge, each breath a battle leaving him paralyzed at the sensation. He had to leave. Get far, _far_ away from this man and the oppressive force he _oozed_ effortlessly.

But something held him back, whether it was the sheer conviction in the man's eyes or his own fear, something stopped him from turning tail to run.

"Why?"

Izuku almost missed it when the dark-haired man spoke again. Why? What was he asking? It took several seconds for his brain to catch up with the conversation. Why he wanted to be a hero? Well that was easy…

"Because I want to help people," he managed to choke out. The answer was simple enough, but any further explanation would be an unnecessary complication. Izuku admired All Might, but not because he was number one. It was because he inspired people to hope with his presence alone. Katsumi would be much better suited to the number one spot, but as long as people could see Izuku flying into danger and think 'everything's going to be okay now!' then he would be happy.

The stranger seemed almost confused at his answer, before his expressional hardened into something more sinister. "Words can be quite powerful, boy, but ultimately meaningless." He scoffed, and Izuku flinched at the man's first show of emotion since his sudden appearance.

But Izuku was more concerned with how the man _flickered, _disappearing in an instant from his perch atop the tower of old Toyotas.

Izuku's head darted from side to side, trying to locate the strange man, reassessing the threat he posed all the while. _A speedster? Guess his bandage was just an injury after all._

Before he could pursue that line of thought any further, Izuku's world was tilted on its axis. He suddenly found himself flat on his back, a heavy, reinforced boot forcing what little air he had left out of his lungs. He stilled, heart racing at the metallic hiss of a Katana leaving its sheath and the cool bite of metal settling against his neck a moment later.

"Be still," the man rasped, either utter unconcerned with the situation or a very talented actor.

Izuku's quicksteel hovered uncertainly overhead, torn between its master's instinctual need to be free, and the logical decision to avoid being beheaded.

For a moment, cold fear spiked through Izuku. His offensive and defensive capabilities, while formidable, were _not _autonomous. They were entirely reliant on his own perception and how fast his mind could react to various events, subconsciously or otherwise. The fact that this man, no, this _monster _could move faster than Izuku could _think_, was both terrifying and enlightening. He'd have to find a way to overcome this obvious weakness.

That is, if he ever managed to get out of _this_ situation alive.

The man stared uncaringly down the blade of his sword toward Izuku as the boy tried and failed to inch even a centimeter away from the razor-sharp edge. It felt like an eternity before the man spoke, though it may have only been seconds.

"The girl from before, the blonde that was with you, tell me everything you know about her and I'll let you go."

A sting of pain followed by a hot trail inching across his skin indicated the increased pressure of the man's blade, but Izuku's mind was elsewhere.

Kacchan!? What could he want with _her_? Was that the whole reason this maniac was here in the first place? The pain and asphyxiation were distracting and making it hard to think clearly, but air could wait, first he had to get himself out of _this_ situation.

He gritted his teeth letting out a hiss of pain, eyes narrowed dangerously at the man holding him hostage but mouth remaining stubbornly shut.

"Last chance, boy!"

This was it, he was out of time. He had to risk taking him out with quicksteel faster than the man could move his blade. Izuku knew, judging from the man's casual show of speed, it was a longshot, and that was being generous.

_Now!_

But his lance of quicksteel swished through air, as the man strolled a few meters away before turning to watch the horizon. His aggressive posture and the pressure he exuded had vanished entirely, leaving Izuku heaving disbelievingly on the ground, quicksteel primed and ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

"A budding hero with conviction, huh?" The man tilted his head curiously and peered over at Izuku, "I suppose there are outliers to every rule."

Izuku barely caught what the man said under his breath, but it had only served to confuse him further. His heart was still hammering in his chest as he sucked in lungfuls of air, and he may or may not have been suffering from an adrenaline crash. Disoriented as he was, all he could managed was a simple, "Huh"

"Your physical skills are still weak, boy. I subdued you in an instant and there was nothing you could do," the man rasped, ignoring Izuku's ineloquent response.

Was this guy fucking insane? "Are you fucking insane?"

Dark pupils pierced Izuku and his mouth clamped shut of its own volition. Perhaps it hadn't been the best decision to curse at the homicidal maniac that'd had him at blade point not sixty seconds previously.

"What will you do about it."

"What?!"

"Your weakness… what is your solution?"

Izuku was so confused. This guy had come out of nowhere demanding answers from him and then the next thing Izuku knew the guy was slicing him up like a side of beef and demanding to know about—

Izuku hopped off the ground and was in the air in a split second. His skyboard vibrated in agitation as he hovered at what he had deemed a safe altitude.

"Who are you and what do you want with Kacchan?" he growled down at the figure below, who hadn't shown any indication of noticing Izuku's abrupt movements.

"Ka…cchan," the man said slowly, as if tasting the word on his lips. "Ah, the blonde one? Right… she was merely a means to an end."

"What the hell is _that _supposed to mean?!" Izuku shouted. He couldn't be serious right? The man hadn't made another aggressive move since then, but Izuku wouldn't let his guard down so easily a second time.

"It was a logical ruse, a test, so to say." He seemed to grow melancholy for a moment, "I've been traveling around Japan lately in search of… a new path."

The words held a certain weight to them, but whatever that meant was beyond Izuku's current understanding. He descended to just above eye-level with the man still keeping his distance.

"I was here yesterday as well, saw you and the girl," he said rolling his eyes. "That just now was more of a spur of the moment decision," his eyes narrowed, inspecting Izuku like a surgeon would his tools. "People like you are a rarity these days. In this world full of fakes…"

Izuku was stunned, "_That_ was a test? I'm _bleeding_ over here."

"Don't be so dramatic, boy, it won't even need a bandage."

"_You're_ one to talk," Izuku muttered under his breath.

The man didn't respond for nearly a minute, and for a moment Izuku thought he might have gone too far.

"Chi" the short syllable cut through the silence like a gunshot.

"What?"

"You asked who I was. I have been called Chi… before." His voice was gruff, but not unkind.

"Riiight." Izuku didn't quite know what to say, this guy… Chi-san? was all over the place. The ghost of that terrifying pressure still echoed in his mind, but if the man's explanation was to be believed, and that was still up for debate, then he had never meant any harm.

"You noticed it too, yes?"

"Wh—"

"Stop asking _what_! _Think_, boy!"

His skyboard lurched back at the burst of emotion from Chi and Izuku leveled it automatically. What had he been talking about before? He'd called him weak? And then—

"How will I fix it?"

A slow nod.

There was of course the question of why Izuku was humoring the man in the first place. As insane as he appeared, he was right about one thing. Izuku was helpless to his assault, incapable of mounting even the most meager of defenses. It wasn't the only weakness his abilities had either. He had mobility and augmented strength in spades, but combat experience? Technique? He was sorely lacking. Quirks that granted immunity to physical attacks would utterly overwhelm him unless he took to the air. And that was all ignoring the natural weakness to heat that was built _in_to his quirk. Somehow, he needed a way to get around even the worst matchups for his quirk possible.

"Its ok if you don't have an answer, I'm no teacher, but if you learn something from this, I don't care either way." Chi deliberately drew his katana once more, the scraping metal filling the empty coast with a ringing hiss.

Izuku's eyes widened in alarm. Was he really doing this again? Did this guy just get off on attacking people out of nowhere?

"Why would I fight you? Someone who ambushed me out of nowhere." Izuku questioned rhetorically. He was ready to simply fly home and leave this whole insane experience behind him.

"'_I want to be a hero,' _that's what you said right?" A cruel sneer came over Chi's features, "Is your conviction really worth so little?"

Izuku froze.

That couldn't be right, of _course_ he wanted to be a hero. It just made zero sense to humor this man that he had just met today, and under perhaps the worst circumstances possible. But would this always be his solution? Fly away and wait for someone else to take care of the problem?

Inexplicably, Izuku found his bare feet settling in the still warm sand.

What the hell was he _doing_?

Chi's eyes bore into his own as he closed the distance, slowly at first but gradually hastening his approach. "So, you've decided then." The tip of his katana left a shallow line in the sand.

"Do try not to die."

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku avoided his apartment entirely after that first night. His mother may have already gotten used to his ardent training routine, but staggering into his home with bandages covering him nearly head to toe would probably be a bit too much.

So instead, he made an executive decision and called ahead letting her know he'd be at Katsumi's house. It was a simple matter avoid Kacchan's mother by flying through his friend's window. Its not that he was worried she wouldn't let him up here, he wasn't. In fact, Aunty Mitsuki was always oddly lenient with him, at least when compared to her daughter, but that was a whole other topic. Izuku avoided her for the very same reason he avoided his own mother, he knew she'd fuss over him, in her own way.

Though her daughter hadn't been much better.

Katsumi had been understandably irate when he'd came through the window wrapped up like a mummy. But for all her worry disguised as aggressive demands, Izuku knew she would keep this between the two of them. At least if he managed to convince her that he _wasn't _in any immediate danger.

And so, he told her the tale of a man named Chi and how he may have just become Izuku's bootleg sensei…

"Oi, Deku," Katsumi mused nearly a half hour later, "If this guy's as strong as you say he is, then why haven't we even _heard_ of him before?"

That was a good question. At first Izuku had written it off as a case of a recent license recipient who had yet to make his hero debut. But that explanation became less and less viable as the night went on and Izuku witnessed the true scope of Chi's abilities. Time and time again he'd been humbled by this stranger, who Izuku _knew_ was holding back.

The man had hardly broken a sweat after all. Every cut delivered to the aspiring hero had been precise, barely deep enough to draw blood, yet painful enough to be a hindrance, opening up his guard to subsequent attacks.

But Izuku had taken Chi's words to heart, little by little, he was observing, learning, and adapting. Hardest of all to come to terms with was the brutality of a true fight, something he hadn't really experienced up to this point in his life. By the end of the night Izuku was hopeful he'd take just a few more seconds to subdue than when he'd started.

"Earth to Deku," Kasumi said flicking him in the forehead. She was leaned over him, peering into his eyes, her left arm braced on the right arm of his chair.

So _close_.

His eyes widened as he realized he was close enough to notice light flecks of gold in her crimson eyes. His face lit up like a beacon causing Katsumi back away abruptly.

He was seriously losing it around this girl.

Rather than acknowledging what had just happened, Izuku instead answered her question. "Chi did say he had been traveling recently, maybe he's one of those heroes that sticks to defending a single area." Local heroes weren't _un_heard of, but Izuku knew this explanation was flimsy at best.

"Look Deku, we both know this guy is fuckin sketchy, and that's just from you tellin me about him." She sighed deeply, her voice growing quiet, "I won't stop you if you think this is the right choice, not again."

Izuku barely caught that last part, but it seemed she wasn't finished.

"Just be the _fuck_ careful!"

He could do that. Izuku grinned at the fiery blonde, a show of worry like that was rare for her, and Izuku was equally concerned. But if this was the path to be the best hero he could be, then he couldn't _afford_ to pass it up.

"How are you gonna explain the bandages to Aunty Inko?" Katsumi said, trying to lighten the mood.

He walked over to her closet and grabbed one of her many plain hoodies. Despite Izuku having shot up in height the last few months, much to the blonde's ire, Katsumi had an enormous collection of pullovers, some of which would fit him in a pinch. It would be fine until he could get past his mother and in his room.

"Sure, take my clothes, not like I fuckin need them," she drawled, flopping onto her bed with her phone and a pair of earbuds.

"Appreciate it, Kacchan."

"Whatever, nerd."

"Night."

"Yeah, yeah."

oooOoOoOooo

Chi had spoken the truth that night, he was no teacher. In fact, it was almost a full month before Izuku even saw the man again. But somehow, he had managed to inject the urgency he had felt that night into his own personal training. Izuku pushed his body to the absolute limit, and when he was broken and bleeding, he went even further beyond, improving at rates he would have thought impossible.

Where at the beginning of the most recent summer break Izuku would struggle to lift microwaves, he could now haul fridges through the sand, though not without significant effort. Quicksteel acted as a personal spotter in a way, letting him take on bigger and bigger challenges without worry of injuring himself.

Izuku wasn't at all surprised when Kacchan had upped the intensity of her training to match his own. Especially when she saw the results his routine had had so far on his growing body. At least, that's what she'd said when he'd caught her staring that one time.

They sparred regularly in order to make sure their power could be put into practice. After all, what was the point of all the strength in the world if there was no finesse to back it up? All Might could probably level cities with all that overwhelming power but has never denied shaking the hand of a fan on the street. How would that be possible if not for absolute, equally-overwhelming_ control._

When Izuku's sensei(?) next made an appearance, he came strapped with another pair of daggers and matching black wrist bracers. Izuku hardly thought the man needed any _more_ sharp objects, but didn't comment. It wasn't even _close_ to the strangest part about the man after all.

Chi didn't waste time with idle words, "So, you've improved some." He drew his blade, "Let's see how much, shall we?!"

The man seemed even more ferocious than the night Izuku met him. Flickering out of sight before a vicious slash clanged against Izuku's quicksteel armour. It had barely finished hardening around his forearm but held strong under Chi's blade.

"Ah yes, such a versatile quirk, _hero_-kun, but can it keep up?" Chi's smile stretched mockingly, vanishing from in front of him like a specter.

The soft sand surrounding them was probably hampering the older man's speed more than Izuku would like to admit. He shuddered at the thought of what he could do in a proper environment. A puff of displaced sand indicated where the man would charge from, but once again Izuku's speed was lacking as Chi flickered by, leaving a familiar stinging pain on his left calf as he passed.

He let out a hiss in agitation, "Do you really have to cut me _every _time?"

A voice came from behind his left shoulder, "How else will you learn unless there is a drawback to being so slow?"

Izuku swung a tendril of quicksteel from a closed fist, sending it whipping through the air towards where he heard the disembodied voice. Another miss. "I thought you weren't a teacher?" Izuku called out, trying to locate his sensei.

What seemed like a wrecking ball plowed into his back, knocking the wind out of him. Izuku found himself flat on his stomach, spitting out globs of dry sand from where he had face planted.

"I'm not," said Chi, though Izuku could not tell from where, horizontal as he was currently. "But that doesn't mean you can't learn."

Izuku sighed, "How am I even supposed to keep up with someone with a speed enhancement quirk?"

Chi came to a stop, lounging against what looked like a beat-up old golf cart.

"Wrong, boy. You are still thinking too narrow-mindedly. People come with a wide-variety of skillsets, not all of them related to their quirks." An uncharacteristic grin stretched over his terrifying mouth, "besides, hurting you with my quirk would be _illegal_, no?"

Was he saying his speed wasn't his quirk?! He'd seen Chi kick straight through car doors before in their spars, the thought that it _wasn't _the result of a supernatural ability was terrifying if her were being honest.

"What will you do when an opponent exceeds all your careful calculations and predictions? Give up? Cower in fear? If that's your answer, then it seems I've made an error in judgement of my own."

Izuku struggled to his feet, spitting the last of the grit from his mouth. Fine then! Quirk or no quirk he would overcome this obstacle, and he _would_ be a hero.

That was the day Izuku acknowledge that human potential could outshine any natural ability.

But if he could embrace both? For the first time since that day almost a month previously, he felt he may have made the right decision risking life and limb to humor this unpredictable man.

oooOoOoOooo

This trend continued in the same vein for nearly his entire first and second years of High School. Chi would inconsistently show up while Izuku was out training, they would spar, and the man would dish out advice veiled as aloof observations. Sometimes, he appeared three or four days in a row, and sometimes it would be a whole month between meetings. Chi's schedule was as inconsistent and unpredictable as the man himself.

It took several meetings, but over time Izuku managed to deduce the secret behind the man's overwhelming strength and speed. In short, there _was_ no secret, it was a product of backbreaking effort and dedication.

In this superhuman society, people tended to ignore anything that didn't have a hand in something related to quirks. Products and advertisements were catered to the quirked individual. Clothes were styled to adapt to every shape and size, jobs tested for quirk compatibility along with a merit-based screening, at least for those where a quirk would aide in efficiency. There were laws in place of course to avoid discrimination, but things always slipped through the cracks.

It was essentially the basis of their society. But what went ignored was the sheer potential of the human body in those who had taken the next step in the evolutionary chain.

Izuku had noticed it before, of course, though not in the same context. The bodies of humans with a quirk were practically wired to adapt to any harsh side effect of their ability. Why would any other form of stress on the body be any different? Breaking muscle down to build it back stronger was the basis of exercise, so why _wouldn't_ the body's boosted adaptability apply to that as well.

Average fitness scores worldwide had gone up since the quirk revolution, and this fact wasn't exactly hidden. But it was no astounding increase, the average person would never have any reason to push their body far enough to tap into that enormous potential.

But Chi-sensei? _Average?_

The thought itself was laughable. Chi had taken that simple concept and slammed it up into eighth gear pushing through agonizing pain and fatigue, until the result was the power he now wielded.

If Izuku managed even a fraction of what the man had, then it would be more than enough to cover up his quirk's drawbacks.

Over time, Izuku _did _improve. While before Chi seemed to vanish from existence with his speed, Izuku could now recognize the predatory grace his sensei moved with. But more importantly, he could _see_ him. His perception seemed to improve the fastest. Having to constantly track and avoid his sensei was proving dividends, and eventually, his body caught up to his mind.

Izuku pushed himself to his physical limits, sometimes unable to pull himself into bed at night, but it all paid off the first time he had consciously managed to react to one of Chi's rushes. He'd merely deflected the first and second strike only to be domed by the hilt of his sensei's blade, but to Izuku, it meant he was closing the gap little by little.

In the time that Chi was not present Izuku studied up on various types of practical martial arts. Having no sensei dedicated to teaching a discipline, Izuku's technique was sorely lacking. But after repeatedly testing a grab bag of techniques from different arts in his brawls with his errant sensei, along with things he picked up from the man himself, Izuku slowly developed a style that was both versatile, and synergized well with his quirk.

Izuku often wondered what the man did in the time he spent away from him, but any search in hero databases had turned up blank, Izuku had checked several times. He was no villain, at least not one Izuku had heard of. And Chi just really didn't give off that vibe.

Besides, how bad could someone willing to help out some nobody hero-in-training really be?

oooOoOoOooo

Something was different that day.

It was the break between his second and third years of high school, and Izuku's chorded muscles rippled with the effort it took to drag the massive broken-down sedan inch by inch through the soft sand. It was one of the very last hunks of metal still marring Dagobah beach. However, they were all pieces he had skipped over in the earlier years of his training, deeming them beyond his ability to move. Now, however, such a feat would be child's play, at least if he'd used his quirk. But Izuku was determined to clear the rest of the beach _without _such a crutch, so that's what he'd do.

Chi showed up unannounced, but that wasn't strange in the least.

Over the months the man had collected the arsenal of weapons, that currently littered his figure. So when he arrived with new gear, Izuku barely blinked an eye anymore. However, typically, his tools could be matched to entirely functional purposes.

Izuku had been skewered by throwing knifes, butchered via katana and hogtied by metal wire more times than he could count. And the protective combat gear Chi wore now offered the most protection he could afford without hampering any of his overwhelming mobility.

The addition this time, however, was a long, tattered scarf. It was blood red, the exact same color as the man's eyes, and seemed to serve no actual purpose besides making his already intimidating figure even more menacing.

Izuku braced himself for the inevitable surprise attack, so was utterly surprised, when no surprise came at all.

Chi seemed to deliberate for a while, which was the second out of character action he'd made that day. But it all made sense when he finally spoke.

"I'm moving on, if you're lucky this will be the last time you see me."

Huh. Well _that _wasn't ominous in the slightest...

Well, it wasn't exactly unexpected. Izuku had no illusions about where the man's loyalties lied. The fact that he had even come back to tell him at all was a miracle in itself.

But Izuku would still miss the guy, his gruff personality had grown on him after a while. Not to mention he was way easier to like once their meetings stopped consisting of constantly getting sliced up. Despite knowing barely anything about the man there was a certain bond you made with someone who constantly threatened your life.

"I'll miss you, Chi-Sensei," Izuku said with a bow.

"I'm not your sensei, kid."

His aura grew oppressive, evoking that same sense of dread just like all those months ago, "I trust you remember your goal?"

Izuku shook off the pressure after a moment, having gotten used to the man's aura over their time together. He nodded resolutely, staring the man in the eyes no matter how intimidating they were.

"Good," he said after a moment. "I can see the resolve behind those eyes, kid." He grew a bit somber, "Just remember to keep that resolve, no matter what kind of monster you end up fighting."

Those were the last words Chi had for him before disappearing in a burst of speed, red scarf trailing him like macabre trail of blood.

What a strange guy.

**AN: Alright, you can have at me with your pitchforks now. All jokes aside, I can understand if some people may not like what I've done with this chapter. Anyone who feels that way is welcome to leave a review, and I'd be happy to discuss my reasoning with you. Next chapter we catch up with canon if that makes you feel any better :]**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: When I first started this story, I totally didn't intend to take five chapters to reach this point, but here we are… I truly envy writers than can convey the gist of a scene with just a few paragraphs and move on so seamlessly, it's something I just can't quite get a handle on. **

**Thanks for all the reviews you guys have been leaving. I always pm readers that ask questions in reviews but I read _every single one._ I used to think it was really annoying when content creators would ask people to leave comments, but I totally understand why now. When you're the _consumer_ in this relationship there's a two-way exchange going on, the creator's ideas, whatever form they're in, and your own thoughts and reactions _to_ those ideas. But as the _creator,_ the only thing you can do is blindly put out content, and the only way they get any kind of response or acknowledgement is through the comment section, or in this case: reviews.**

**It feels _really _nice to get reviews guys, positive or not, and I just wanted to say I really fucking appreciate it.**

**There's more art for this story posted on my twitter and IG by the way. I'd appreciate it if you shoot me a follow at biitii_Art. **

**This chapter deals with the first iconic canon scene in the manga, I hope I did it justice.**

Chapter 6

Familiar Territory

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Katsumi groaned, wishing, not for the first time, that the sun would just fucking _die_ already. Her blinds had of course been arranged at the _perfect _angle where a beam of morning light was in the _exact_ position to assassinate her eyelids. It was _way_ too early to be up. She settled back into the warm covers, indulging her body's craving for that extra minute of rest.

_Bang Bang Bang! _"Get up, brat, summer's over! Time to quit slackin off!"

That was a sentiment apparently not shared by her wonderful mother.

"Ugh…" she groaned, rolling out of bed with a thump. Katsumi dragged herself to her bathroom, going through the motions of brushing her teeth and washing her face while still half asleep.

The shower that followed however, helped chase away the last of the lethargy from her veins, and ten minutes later she was dressed in a tight pair of yoga pants and one of her many pullover hoodies, finally ready to tackle her early morning workout.

She raced out the front door and let out a hiss as the brisk morning air bit at the exposed skin of her face. Katsumi began a slow jog, taking a familiar path leading towards the forested park near her home.

One might question the validity of showering _before _her morning workout. To those people, she'd say, _fuck off_. A splash of extra water in the morning was much preferred to feeling like fucking zombie for the next two hours.

Katsumi slowed to a stop at a familiar clearing before starting her standard set of warm-up calisthenics. She worked her way through countless stretches with deliberate precision, her flexibility being one of many things she'd drilled relentlessly in the past few years.

Even after adopting Deku's backbreaking workout routine, when one discounted their quirks, she predictably fell short when it came to raw power.

Katsumi gave a grunt of effort as she engaged her core, twisting out of an L-sit and straight into a vertical headstand. Her posture remained unwavering, a testament to the restraint shown in every movement.

It wasn't like she'd been constantly losing to the nerd or anything, quite the contrary actually. Katsumi netted just as many wins as losses in their weekly spars. But she did it using other strengths to her advantage, namely, her greater flexibility and superior technique.

She exhaled sharply through her nose, dropping into a narrow Muay Thai stance. Her lead foot bore more weight than the rear, allowing better balance for an aggressive style of combat. She threw a few experimental jabs, bobbing a weaving against an imaginary opponent before a traditional knee was thrown into the mix. She could practically see Izuku's confident grin in her mind, now looking completely at home on his chiseled jaw as he weaved his inhumanly powerful blows through her guard.

She'd thought Deku had finally lost it when he'd come up to her room one day mumbling under his breath about _potential_. Katsumi had only felt her point was reaffirmed minutes later when she'd finally managed to get a proper explanation out of him.

Achieving inhuman strength _without_ a quirk? It just seemed too fantastical to imagine at the time. But as she gradually saw Izuku's progress over the months, Katsumi had to admit there might have been some credence to his theory.

Joining him in his training had been a no brainer once she'd seen the results for herself… plus any extra time with her best friend couldn't hurt.

She continued her shadowboxing for the next half-hour or so, before transitioning into a brief refresher with her quirk. Katsumi didn't attempt anything overly strenuous knowing she'd probably be meeting up with Izuku after school for a much more taxing workout.

Katsumi began the slow jog back to her house, invigorated and ready to tackle the day.

oooOoOoOooo

It was the first day of her last year of Highschool, and Katsumi couldn't wait to get it over with. She'd already aced the UA mock exams nearly two weeks previously and finally felt like she was on the way to making her mark on the world.

As she neared the school, Katsumi caught a familiar sight out of the corner of her eye. The steep hill that preceded the straightest shot into the heart of Musutafu was one Katsumi had seen Izuku bomb down at insane speeds before. So, the sight of a familiar mane of green and black hair blazing down the hill towards her was no surprise.

She shook her head as her friend danced across the deck of his board as he carved down the last hundred meters. He twisted his hips, dragging the board ninety degrees and sliding the rest of the way, still moving alarmingly fast as he sped towards her position.

But Katsumi didn't move. This was a familiar routine between the two of them and she refused to allow him the satisfaction of making her flinch.

He slowed in the last few meters as she knew he would, stopping a mere two feet away from her.

"Morning, Kacchan," he said, smiling _down_ at her.

She sighed, looking _up_ at the nerd with narrowed eyes.

Who the _hell_ did he think he was looking all ripped and shit? Deku was supposed to be a puny brainiac! Now he had the body of a fighter, and the instinct to match. And he was tall as _fuck._

_Shit._

It wasn't that she _dis_liked the changes that had recently come about in her best friend, she just didn't exactly know how to react to it.

Katsumi couldn't deny it any longer, Izuku had somehow gotten… _hot_ and something simply _had_ to be done about it!

The others were starting to notice. The reputation the nerd had fostered in primary school hadn't exactly followed him into the upper grades. So, when the string bean had started tying his hair out of those gorgeous eyes, and the wiry musculature appeared on his lean frame, a history of bullying didn't seem so important anymore to the girls in their class.

Luckily, Izuku payed none of the leeches any attention, so Katsumi was content in her inaction. But whether that was a _good_ thing she wasn't so sure… Could having to keep her hands off that chiseled body _really_ be considered good? It sure as hell didn't _feel _like it.

"Kacchan?"

She blinked. How fucking long had she been standing there?!

Katsumi scowled, trying to play off the heat that came to her cheeks. "Mornin, nerd. Early ride?" she asked, nodding at the path he'd come from. His apartment was in the other direction, meaning he'd been in the city for some reason.

His face lit up with a smile at the question. "Yeah, actually, Kamui woods was showing off for a crowd again."

Oh? Deku had been following the up and coming hero since he'd won the UA sports festival a couple years back. He never shut up about the guy. "The fuck? What happened?"

Izuku shook his head, "It was just a purse snatcher, he got cornered and flipped out with his transformation quirk." He snorted at the memory, "Dude was like a rasta-shark or something… But he was actually doing some damage by the time I got there."

He started rolling next to her at a walking pace and Katsumi rapped her knuckles against his quirk, taking a strange sense of joy at how the quicksteel bobbed weightlessly through the air. "I'm pretty sure Kamui was just toying with him," he mused. "He was no big-shot villain, but that's not the surprising bit, right as he was gonna finish him off, a new hero hit the scene."

Katsumi perked up at that. "Oh? anyone good?"

He scrunched his nose cutely, _cut it the fuck out, Katsumi,_ as if contemplating something particularly puzzling.

This ought to be good…

"Well, aside from totally ks-ing Kamui Woods, her quirk seems to be simple gigantification. Though it _is_ on a scale that I haven't seen in a while, at least in our generation." Deku huffed out a laugh, "But uh… something makes me think she's going to be pretty popular."

_That _sounded ominous… "Oh? Why's that?"

Izuku tossed her his phone, "See for yourself."

She scrolled through the various snapshots he'd taken of the scene, pausing to inspect some more closely. Some of the shots of Kamui Woods' Lacquered Chains Prison were definitely background-worthy. But it was when she reached the last few photos that she understood what the nerd was getting at.

"She introduced herself as 'Mount Lady' and let's just say she ah… plays to the crowd."

Katsumi's eyebrow twitched slightly at the sight of the giant woman's voluptuous body. The crowds of reporters clustered around her gigantic fucking ankles, hounding for the _perfect _shot.

She couldn't help the spike of inadequacy that shot through her momentarily. Katsumi knew her constant workouts kept her looking fit, but there was something to be said about being more uh... _naturally _gifted.

She might have blasted her friend for the provocative nature of the shots of the giant woman, but Katsumi had a feeling the fault didn't lay with Izuku. He tended to approach his photography in the same way he did his hero notes. Almost clinically.

"She wont last long if she's only in it for the fame," Katsumi said cuttingly, feeling a need to justify her dislike for the woman.

Izuku nodded in agreement, "They spike in popularity over a short period, but ultimately people can tell when you're genuine or not." He smiled crookedly over at her, "It's in the eyes, you know?"

…

Oh my god stop that shit. Deku isn't supposed to be… _smooth,_ he's fuckin _Deku_.

Stumble over your words! Mutter like a psycho! Do _something _to let her know she hadn't gone _completely _insane.

"Hurry up, nerd, we're gonna be late." Katsumi stomped ahead, heels clicking sharply while her skirt flapped lightly with her aggressive steps.

For fuck's sake, was this really what her life had come to? She was _really_ letting _Deku_ get her flustered?! What had _happened _to the simple world she knew?!

oooOo Izuku oOooo

They'd made it to homeroom before the bell and Kacchan had returned to normal after a strange flash of aggression. Izuku was quite used to his friend's outbursts, having practically grown up with the girl. But usually he could pinpoint the cause. 'Extras bein' extras...' 'peasants not knowing their place...' 'air takin up all the space,' Izuku was familiar with many of the girl's triggers.

But why had she been so flustered earlier? It seemed to come out of nowhere and have no cause.

More importanly, did she know how attractive she was when her cheeks got that rosy tint? Did she do it on purpose? That _sounded _like something she'd do, Izuku wasn't exactly subtle with his affections after all. But she'd never acknowledged it… Maybe for once in her life she was showing some tact and letting him down easy?

Did that really have any relevance to Kacchan's mood at all?

Probably not, but that didn't stop him from recalling the image several times in the brief moment he had before their lesson's started.

Some might have found the girl's eccentricities a hassle to deal with, but to Izuku, these quirks of hers were even more enchanting than the one that made things explode.

"You guys are all third years now," their new homeroom teacher lectured from the front of the class. "It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures!"

The man came off a little too fake for Izuku's taste. Like he acted like the 'cool' teacher but really hated his job. He'd told Katsumi just minutes earlier, you could see it in the eyes.

"Ah, who am I kidding, you all want to be heroes anyway right?!" the man shouted, tossing the career projection forms into the air.

In perhaps the most coordinated display of mass rule breaking Izuku could have imagined, nearly their entire class started firing off their quirks in tandem.

Izuku winced as the cacophony of sound assaulted his finely-tuned senses. Just a little restraint is all he asked for, but sometimes his classmates made even _that _look difficult. Katsumi may have been more outspoken about it than Izuku, but he too looked forward to the day he could finally break free of this place and show the world what he was _really_ made of.

"Yes, yes, you all have wonderful quirks! But using your powers at school is against the rules!" Their sensei chided half-heartedly. What little credibility he'd earned with his words went out the window in the next moment when he winked at the group companionably.

Gods, this guy was such a ham.

Speaking of Katsumi, if the noise had left _Izuku_ irritated, then he was surprised Kacchan hadn't sa—

"Ne… I know you're our sensei and all, but don't you think these extras are old enough to know the truth by now?"

Ah, there we go…

There was a taunting edge to Katsumi's tone as the casual comment cut through the noise like a knife. "Don't lump us all together like that," she drawled, positively _oozing _contempt, "it might give the extras false hope or something."

A beat of silence, then—

"Hey what the hell Bakugo!"

"The fuck's that supposed mean!

"Yeah! You can't talk to us like that!"

Izuku shook his head slowly as their classmates all voiced their displeasure. The way Kacchan could come off so condescendingly while slouched back in her chair like a delinquent was frankly, an artform.

Their teacher spoke up, "Ah yes Bakugo-san, you wanted to go to UA University if I'm not mistaken?"

A cruel grin overcame Katsumi's features as the class erupted in disbelief, spouting various statistics that outlined the school's prestige. "The UA exam is a damn formality at this point," She cackled madly, "count yourselves lucky that you were here to see my humble beginnings scrubs."

Izuku sighed, Kacchan always did have a flair for the dramatics. Pride could be an attractive quality at times, but sometimes the girl took it to the extreme.

"Oh, Midoriya-kun I see you also wanted to attend UA?"

…

Aww… and he was having such a relaxing day too.

"Pffft!"

"Huh!?"

"Midoriya?"

"No fuckin way!"

"Aint no way he's getting in with such a useless quirk!"

He sighed, they'd eventually tired themselves out. Though he didn't support Katsumi's methods, the idea behind her actions was correct. These people simply wouldn't be a part of his life in after another year, so why should he care what they thought of him. Curiously, in the last couple of years he'd been getting less and less grief during school. Even now, only a small portion of the class was laughing at him, mostly guys for some reason, and almost all of them were his previous bullies that simply couldn't lay a finger on him at this point.

"Yeah, _Deku_, how _do _you plan to pass the practical?"

He looked up, meeting the mischievous eyes of his best friend. What was she up to? "Kacchan?"

She stalked over to his desk, looking positively predatory. "I said… what makes _you_ think you're good enough to pass an exam designed for people like _me?"_

"They've abolished the quirk screening part of the application, you should know that as well as I do Kacchan." He kept his tone even, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Sounds like you're avoiding the question, nerd." She was leaning over him now, palm braced on his desk and smoking lightly. He grinned seeing that she had avoided burning any of his notes or papers, only charring the stained and graffitied wood underneath. He saw what she was doing, and it wasn't going to work.

"I guess I'll just have to work _really_ hard." Not yet, Kacchan. He knew she was eager for him to be recognized for his skills, but it really was more trouble than it was worth.

"Whatever, nerd…"

oooOoOoOooo

"What was _that _all about, Kacchan?" Izuku laughed as they made their way to his home. He and Katsumi planned to train a bit down on Dagobah beach and were going to stop by the closest of their houses to get a change of clothes.

"Those fucking side characters need to learn their place, Deku! The real question is why you haven't flexed a little." She struck a strongman pose and let off a flashy explosion that was all bang and no bite.

"You're incorrigible," he sighed shaking his head.

Izuku leaned back into a manual as they passed under a freeway overpass.

"It doesn't matter what _I_ am! It's about whAUGH—"

His head snapped to his friend, but where she was just standing was… well Izuku didn't quite know _what _it was. The sun was blocked out by a hulking figure, the light traveling through its translucent body tinted the surrounding concrete a grimy green hue.

The air carried a putrid stench, and Izuku wasn't sure if it was coming from the now-open manhole that lead to the sewers below, or the terrifying being that had emerged from it.

"What a wonderful quirk you have there! And in such a nubile young body!" Izuku's stomach lurched at the gleam in the monster's yellow eyes. "With this I might even be able to take _him_ on!" The voice was guttural and echoed hauntingly as if its nonexistent lungs were waterlogged with its own mass.

What an odd side effect of a mutation quirk, but more importantly—

"Kacchan!"

"Grghk!" her answer wasn't encouraging.

The monster before him had his best friend in its grasp, its thick, sludge-like body restraining her more and more by the second. Izuku's eyes widened as he heard the telltale rapid fire pops indicative of one of Katsumi's larger explosions. She wouldn't! Not in a residential area anyway. Could this villain hijack quirks too?!

Izuku's body twitched into motion and in a split second he was hovering nearly twenty meters above the ground. Just in time too as the alley below was filled with fire and ash. He tilted his skyboard at an angle to protect his more vulnerable areas from the force and debris from the explosion, while his perch remained undisturbed.

He surveyed the area below, knowing Katsumi could possibly only have seconds if her air supply was cut off. He could see her struggling against the monster's possession even now. She had apparently reasserted control over her quirk as smaller, controlled blasts of her own making tore chunks out of the monster with noxious clouds of super-heated slime. But without the proper angle she couldn't eviscerate the monster completely as Izuku feared they might have to.

The villain appeared to have come out of the sewer grate under the overpass. It was either waiting there for the first victim to come by, or they were just incredibly unlucky and ran into it by chance. Either way it didn't really change the current situation.

Izuku cursed sharply.

It was just his luck that they would run into something like a sludge monster. Izuku had a feeling physical attacks wouldn't do much against that liquid body. He'd need to free Kacchan first unless there was another weakness he could exploit…

Wait a second! That thing had been _talking_ earlier! Meaning it _had _to have a way to do so…

He drifted around, looking for a better vantage point, only taking a moment to find the wide, gaping mouth that floated below a pair of bulging eyes.

Perfect.

"Kacchan, blind it!"

He pulled a large screen of quicksteel to block his vision knowing Katsumi would react immediately.

With a sudden surge of strength, she tore a single arm through a gelatinous body so a splayed hand faced skyward. "**_Flash Bang_**_!" _Katsumi choked out through gritted teeth.

A flash of nearly _colorless_ light threw the alleyway into stark relief, momentarily obscuring Izuku's vision even _behind _his wall of quicksteel.

The creature flinched away from the blinding explosion, allowing Katsumi to get a wonderous gulp of fresh air.

Izuku cut all tethers holding his quicksteel aloft, letting himself freefall to the ground like an anvil. The cloud of dust his impact kicked up looked about the same as. His body flickered with a burst of speed before the smoke had even cleared, and Izuku appeared before the still-incapacitated sludge monster in the blink of an eye.

Without losing any momentum, Izuku let loose a jumping hook kick at the exposed eyes and mouth.

The strike connected, parting the amorphous body with a sickening _squelch,_ and flung the organs completely _outside_ the main body. His quirk latched onto the flying eyes along with the mass of sludge that clung to them desperately, quickly sealing them in a hollow sphere around the size of a large beachball.

He turned back to where Katsumi stood over the remaining mass of slime, its body writhing and undulating uncertainly without its eyes for sensory input.

She was drenched in the filthy gunk, spikey locks of hair lying flat on her head for once, and looking a far cry from the ash blonde he knew so well. Izuku recognized that look in her eye, and so preemptively put up another shield to block the imminent explosion.

Katsumi growled unintelligibly, her fingers twitching at her sides as a single word ghosted past her lips. "_Die._"

And Izuku's world turned red.

His ears rung from the blast, and the fatigue that washed over him was a testament to the intensity of the heat she produced. But unlike the unrestrained blast that the villain had forced upon her moments earlier, this one had all the finesse that Katsumi had built up over the years, staying firmly contained within the concrete walls of the underpass.

As the smoke cleared Katsumi's silhouette was slowly revealed. She certainly struck an impressive sight as she stood panting lightly, eyes shadowed by her head bent forward slightly.

Izuku hoped that whatever kept the sludge monster alive was sealed safely within his globe of quicksteel. Not that the sicko didn't deserve some 'splodin, but then Katsumi might face some real trouble in the future. He let out an exasperated sigh.

Just a little self-restraint, that's all he asked…

"**That's quite the formidable quirk, young citizen, but I must advise you against using it so carelessly in the future!"**

Izuku's eyes snapped to source of the too-familiar voice.

Beaming smile. Long, upward swooping bangs? Powerful, almost inhuman physique? The cargo pants and muscle shirt didn't detract from his presence in the slightest.

"Holy shit… its—"

**"Yes! It is I, All Might! And it seems I owe you two an apology, its not often that I let civilians get caught up in my heroing!"**

How the legend himself managed to look like a Greek god, and sheepish at the same time was a mystery to Izuku. But at the moment, he was too busy trying not to hyperventilate. How could The Symbol of Peace just casually show up here without warning?! He wasn't ready yet! So many questions to ask, and he had no idea where to start.

"Oi, All Might, it wasn't careless." Katsumi's voice cut through his inner panic.

Did she really just- "Kacchan you can't _say_ that! It's…" His hands grasped at the air impotently, unable to find the words to describe how much that _wasn't_ allowed. "It's _All Might_." Izuku rushed over to his friend, only to hover uncertainly. Its not like he could physically _stop_ her from speaking her mind, and frankly he should be used to it at this point. But you can just back-talk freaking All Might! That had to be like cursing in church or something.

**"What was that, young lady?" **The legend's grin was still present, but he seemed to be distracted, rifling through the brush in the surrounding area, searching for something by the looks of it.

She huffed irritably, but Izuku could see the tension in her frame.

Oh… he should have know. Kacchan was just as star struck as he was, she just showed it in her own way.

"I _said_… It wasn't careless, scold me for fighting with my quirk in public, I don't give a shit. But they'll only die if I want them to die."

Izuku chuckled lightly, amazed a how much his friend had changed over the years. He couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had happened, but around the time they'd started middle school she taken extra care with the collateral damage of her quirk. He was once again amazed by the conviction of Bakugo Katsumi, not even the number one hero himself could get away with shortchanging her skill.

The legend straightened up to his full, massive height.

**"Ah, I see! My apologies young miss, it seems that I misspoke, I was merely in a rush, I hope you understand." **All Might returned to his search of the surrounding brushes off the street. **"This particular wrongdoer is quite slippery you see, even if most of his body was dealt with by your most impressive ability, his ability to regenerate is nearly unparalleled. It's the eyes you need to aim for, you see!" **He pointed to his own shadowed eyes with an index and middle finger.

Oh. Well at least he didn't need to worry about Katsumi having murdered someone today.

That was always nice. "Um, All Might-san?"

The hero's baby blue eyes settled on him for the first time that afternoon. All Might's presence filled a space in a completely different way than Chi-sensei did. Where his mentor exuded an oppressive force to all that challenged him, All Might's aura seemed to embrace and protect, bringing a sense of security without even lifting a finger.

It was no less overwhelming.

**"Yes, young man, what can I do for you?**

Izuku brought the ball of quicksteel into view with a thought, "If it's the eyes and mouth you're looking for then I've got them right here." He rapped his knuckles against the hollow orb producing a satisfying ringing sound, only to grimace as a gurgling wail answered from within.

Somehow, All Might managed to grimace as well, while still keeping that wide grin plastered to his face.

It was impressive, really.

**"Why thank you, young man! Though as a hero it's a bit embarrassing to be shown up by the people I'm supposed to be saving, but many thanks all the same!"**

He reached slowly towards the metal prison, and Izuku barely managed to withhold a gasp. The tanned skin of All-Might's massive hand was weathered and laced with a plethora of varying scars.

An entire hero career of injuries recorded in plain view for any who cared to pay attention. The man always looked so pristine and polished when he appeared on TV. To see the evidence of his triumphs in person as someone who idolized this man as Izuku had.

How humbling.

Izuku slowly unfolded the globe of quicksteel that restrained what was left of the villain, marveling at the casual display of dexterity by the symbol of peace as he snatched the fleeing criminal out of the air. All Might stuck the eyes, mouth, and remaining slime into two-liter coke bottles of all things, and had signed volume fourteen of Hero analysis for the future with a wide grin the minute Izuku had asked.

Before he knew it, the legend himself was crouching down in preparation to leap into the distance. In another situation Izuku would be thrilled to witness one of his legendary super-jumps in person. But now, that would mean he'd be leaping _away_ from Izuku and hestillhadsomanyquestions!

He felt a nudge at his shoulder, turning to see Katsumi at his side. "Go, nerd, you know you'll regret it if you don't." His eyes widened, surprised for a moment that she knew him so well.

"All Might, wait!" Well, he'd done it, now what? He'd delayed his hero even further so it better be worth it, which of the many curiosities that filled his head would be appropriate to ask here? For a second, Izuku was stumped, before his mind returned to something he'd been curious about for a while now. He squared his shoulders, staring into the man's eyes. "All Might, do you have someone looking out for you too? You keep all of us safe, but do you have someone you can lean on as well?"

The blonde hero turned, peering curiously at Izuku who shrunk back a bit at the stare. **"Young heroes-to-be, what are your names?"**

"Uh, Midoriya Izuku, sir…"

"Tch, Bakugo. Bakugo Katsumi."

**"Well then, Midoriya-shonen!** **How kind you are to worry about one such as I, but fear not! For evil will not prevail in the face of friendships such as yours!" **His smile grew a bit softer and he placed a heavy hand on their left and right shoulders, **"I too have friends I can rely on, Midoriya-kun, Bakugo-chan." **

And with that, he gave a jaunty wave before crouching once more. **_"_I look forward to seeing what becomes of you two, but until then…"**

A concussive force jolted Izuku off his feet as the man leaped thousands of meters into the air, clearing even the tallest of Musutafu skyscrapers with a single bound.

Izuku stood transfixed at the incredible display of power, before a splat broke him out of his thoughts. Katsumi stood scowling as she flung her hoodie to the ground with a disgusting squelch.

"God this is fucking _gross_," she shouted, incinerating the ruined clothing with her quirk. "Damn sludge is fucking _everywhere."_

Izuku withheld a blush at the implications, and did his best to avert his gaze from the girl's now-transparent school uniform, focusing instead on the task at hand. He molded the entire mass of his quicksteel into a privacy curtain before handing off his uniform jacket to the girl still cursing up a storm.

She ducked under the screen with a muttered, "thanks."

oooOoOoOooo

"Should I be insulted? you didn't try to sneak a peek even _once_," Katsumi asked a minute later as they made their way to their original destination.

Izuku sputtered. "The hell kind of guy do you think I am."

"A horny one, aren't they all?" The line was delivered so seriously that if he'd never met her before he might have believed it.

"I'm just going to ignore that," he pouted. "But more importantly! That was All Might. Kacchan, _All Might! _ He was even cooler in person! He was so _strong_, and and, did you see his _hand!?_" Izuku was finally having the freak-out that the situation previously hadn't allowed.

"Yeah, I know, you were totally lame," she said with a smirk.

"What do you mean?"

She stuck out a wobbly lip. "'All Might, do _you_ have someone to lean on?' Gaaahahahahah!"

"Ah! What do you mean _lame?!_ I was being _serious!"_

"I know you were, that's what made it lame, nerd" she said, jabbing him playfully with her elbow. Katsumi mellowed out after a moment. "I wouldn't worry though, he seemed to take it seriously enough, even asked us for our names," she sighed. "I'd have liked to have taken his number one spot before he learned _mine,_ but I guess we can't win em all huh?"

Izuku halted for a moment, realizing that even caked in sludge and wearing his oversized uniform jacket, Katsumi looked particularly striking as she professed her intention to be the very best hero.

"Yeah, guess not."

Izuku smiled. All things considered, today wasn't so bad after all.

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Katsumi stood before the enormous vat of water boiling over a bonfire on Dogobah beach, thinking that perhaps Izuku's mysterious sensei might have rubbed off on him a _little _more than she'd realized.

The shower she'd taken that afternoon at Izuku's house had been _glorious_, letting Katsumi cleanse the taint of sludge from her skin after probably the most uncomfortable walk of her fucking life. If she never saw, smelt, or god forbid, _tasted_ another sewer again, it would only be too soon.

But after she had cleaned and dressed herself, she and Izuku had of course talked over what had happened that day. The conclusion Katsumi had reached was she needed a way to get out of situations where her arms were restrained. No fucking _way_ would she be some damsel in distress no matter how chivalrous her best friend wanted to be.

So here she was, a few days later, finally committing to one of the many theories they'd discussed but never got around to testing over the years.

Izuku had theorized that the bottoms of her feet could produce her explosive just as well as her palms, they were just… dormant? The details had bored her at the time, so she hadn't really payed too much attention.

But maybe if she had, then she would have known that he'd come up with _this_ shit!

"You're sure about this?" he asked.

"The fuck do you mean am _I _sure!? This was _your_ idea, nerd!?" The hell does he think he is?

"No no, Kacchan this was my _solution_ to the problem _you_ had, don't go putting this on me."

Then he had the audacity to chuckle. At _her. _

Katsumi fumed silently for a moment, knowing that he was right. This _was _her only option if she wanted to evolve beyond her current limits. She'd seen the strength her friend used casually in her presence, and while she wasn't too far behind on that front, she couldn't afford to slack off. Not for a fucking moment.

Izuku was always raving about how skilled she was, but _he_ was the real prodigy. Not that the nerd ever showed it off or anything, in fact she wished he _would _show off more.

But a small part of her took some satisfaction in no one else being privy to what he was truly capable of. That honor lay firmly with her, and that same part of her wished it would stay that way.

"—cchan, you ready? Kacchan?"

"Right, nerd, slow the fuck down already," she bit out irritably, wincing almost immediately. _Gah!_ why did she have to be such a bitch to the only genuine person in her life outside her family? Was she really so predisposed to lash out?

But of course, he only smiled widely at her and apologized like he always did. Too forgiving for his own good.

She settled onto the platform Izuku had made with his quirk, flinching as the icy surface met the skin unprotected by the shorts she wore. Katsumi shifted as Izuku gently, _always_ gently, guided the platform to dangle her legs over the boiling water. She grinned inwardly as she caught his eyes darting to the exposed skin. It was an unforeseen effect of her attire but not an unwelcome one. She may not be as naturally gifted as her mother up top, but she knew her lifestyle did wonders for her some of her _other_ attributes. She'd take the attention she could get.

The idea actually wasn't as extreme as it first appeared. Yes, this was a more extreme tempurature than anything she'd ever dealt with before. But it wouldn't _scald_ her like it would if it were Izuku sitting up here. Just as the nerd had written on her… hero page, minor heat resistance _was_ of course, a part of her quirk.

But that _minor_ part was pretty fuckin key here. This was still going to hurt like a motherfucker. She turned to her friend meeting his eyes resignedly. "Just do it, Deku."

The platform dropped six inches, and her feet felt like they were submerged in magma.

"Aarghhfucking shit!"

"Kacchan!"

"Don't you dare pull me out!" she gritted out through a clenched jaw. The steam billowing up around her clung to the fabric of her clothes, leaving her a sweaty mess. But it was the pain surrounding the sensitive skin of her feet that held all the girl's attention.

"It's a good thing people haven't started coming around here at this time of year," Izuku said.

Ugh, she knew she told him to commit, but now he was _way_ too relaxed for the situation she was in. "Why's… that, Deku?" she bit out, trying to distract herself from the pain.

"Oh, with the way you screamed I wouldn't want them to think I was torturing you or something."

"You _are_ torturing me!"

Was that a tad irrational? Perhaps. But in the heat of the moment it made her feel better, and she knew he wouldn't hold it against her. He never did.

"Alright, that's enough I think," Izuku said, raising her from the barrel before she could protest.

"The hell Deku? I coulda gone way longer."

He smiled at her like he was placating a child, the hell was that about?

"I know you could have," he sighed, frowning seriously. "We know your skin is heat resistant, but your muscles? Your organs?" He shook his head, "Let's go slow at first, your Mom would never forgive me if I brought her back some poached Kacchan."

Oh my god he was so fucking _lame_. Why the fuck was her mouth tilting up like that without her permission?! _Stop smiling, damn it!_

But she had to admit that made sense, and so, _grudgingly_, Katsumi let him guide the quicksteel platform to the sand. He always kept a hand on it, she knew he couldn't quite lift other people remotely with his quirk yet. Obviously, skin contact drastically improved its power, and with the heat of the fire so close, it was necessary to keep its form at all.

Izuku settled next to her so he could keep the platform solid, allowing her to avoid resting her tender feet in the coarse sand. She hissed in appreciation a moment later as the soles of her feet touched the cool metal.

"So, what now?" she said, turning to face her friend.

Izuku paused to think for a moment. "How do you use your quirk with your hands? Just try to emulate what that feels like I guess."

Katsumi sighed. That wasn't very helpful, but she supposed she'd have a much better shot at something intuitive like this. Even if Izuku _was_ practically a walking hero encyclopedia, you never knew another's quirk like your own.

Of _course_, she knew what it felt like. She'd been training Explosion since was four, there was nothing she knew better than that exhilarating electric tingle that arced across her palms before a she let off a _real _ear-ringer.

Katsumi tried to replicate that same feeling in the soles and arches of her feet. But almost immediately after the attempt, she knew it wouldn't work. Not yet at least.

There was a ghost of the feeling, an echo. But at the moment, it was just a bit out of reach for her.

"It's there, just…" her eyes narrowed to slits, "It doesn't want to come."

"I'd be more surprised if it worked on the first try," he said.

"Yeah," she grunted, standing abruptly.

Katsumi ignored his knowing smirk as she marched over to the vat of bubbling water.

"Again?" he asked, and she resisted the urge to throttle him since he at least _attempted_ to hide his grin.

But she wouldn't give him the pleasure of a verbal reply, instead choosing to tap her foot impatiently.

Her stomach _totally_ didn't get butterflies at the smile he gave her in response.

**AN: Alright, this is the last chapter of the pre-UA arc. The good news is I've stayed 3-4 chapters ahead this whole time, meaning in a couple chapters the next arc will be done. I like having a couple chapters leeway since it helps prevent writing myself into a corner, but I'm really into this story at the moment so I'm not too worried about keeping up this posting schedule for the time being. Also, I'm on spring break, so there's a good chance I'll be writing when I'm not drawing. Hopefully, you guys will get another chapter within a couple of days.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Not entirely happy with this chapter, but I think this is the best it's gonna get for now. Minimal fluff and more action for obvious reasons :s**

**Chapter 7**

The Beginning of the Rest of Our Lives

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku carved down the gentle slope leading away from the entrance to Central Musutafu train station, looking for once unconcerned with the various worries of the world outside his personal bubble. The brisk winter wind lashed at his hair, whipping the few strands that escaped his tie at his forehead.

He heaved out a sigh, a hand resting on his quicksteel in its default form to guide his movement through the thickening crowds of locals and tourists alike.

He was dressed as casually as the people surrounding him, and in some cases more so. A pair of black joggers and a forest green hoodie were his only attire. The pair of stylish red nikes covering his feet were perhaps the most extravagant part of his dress, but he'd never be caught dead without them.

They _were_ a rare gift from Kacchan for his previous birthday after all.

The young man's manner of dress didn't reflect his destination in the slightest. Quite the opposite, actually. Izuku had just recently graduated from Aldera Highschool and was minutes away from taking the UA entrance exam.

The scratching of his longboard's wheels soothed his frayed nerves as he dodged around the various pedestrians crowding the street. The district where UA was located had grown into a sort of pop-culture mecca as a result of the many influential heroes that proudly called the school their alma mater.

Everything from hero memorials to curio shops littered the plaza preceding UA's gates, where young hero enthusiasts gathered to trade, discuss the latest news or whatever else caught their fancy.

Spying a familiar head of ash-blonde hair, Izuku made his way through the crowd eager to see a friendly face.

"Kacchan!" he called out over the crowd.

Her eyes snapped to the sound of his voice "Hah? Finally showing your face after making me wait, eh, Deku?"

He was still coming to terms with how much she'd changed in the last ten months.

Her face had grown more angular as she lost the last of the fat around her cheeks, and while her spiky blonde hair was still worn in the same disarray as usual, her bangs were slightly longer, shadowing crimson eyes and giving her a particularly exotic look. Even with the typical hoodie she wore, it was evident that Katsumi's athletic figure had grown both curvier with age and notably more powerful along with the increased intensity of her training.

And… Izuku would never say it out loud, but she made those yoga pants look positively _villainous_.

Katsumi fell into step beside him as he rolled by, both entering the gates of UA. They were filtered through a screening process, where it was confirmed that they were actually UA applicants, and that they had indeed already taken the written portion of the exam the previous weekend.

When Izuku had confirmed that, yes, he _had_ taken the written portion, he was given a guest pass card that allowed him past UA's state-of-the-art security system without issue.

He couldn't help but gaze around in awe at the grand architecture of this legendary school. Mementos from UA alumni, prestigious awards, and other such decorations seemed to be plastered to every surface

"Quit gaping, Deku, we've got a practical to crush!" Katsumi said, shoving him lightly.

Izuku playfully fell over entirely, fully intending to catch himself with his quirk as he had done so many times before. But curiously, as his quicksteel moved to snatch him out of the air, a peculiar sensation overcame his body.

It was as if all the weight left his form… as if he would drift away from the earth with even the slightest application of force. It was wholly disorienting considering everything around him remained determinedly stationary.

"I'm sorry for using my quirk on you without asking! I know it can be a bit unsettling the first time 'round, but it would be bad luck to fall on such an important day right?" Izuku stared into the wide brown eyes and frowning face of the girl he assumed had helped him.

Only… she wasn't frowning, Izuku was still floating upside down

He grinned, "Gravity manipulation, huh?" Izuku peered curiously at his arms as he floated weightlessly through the air. "Kacchan, look! The blood's not even going to my head! Its like I'm really in space!"

"I don't even fucking know you right now," Katsumi said, a dusting of red on her face as she glared at some of the other applicants starting to stare.

"Aw, don't be like that, Kacchan, since when have _you _cared what other people think?"

She scoffed irritably but ultimately let the matter rest as the brown-eyed girl from before patted his chest returning him to earth's grasp once more. sending him plummeting to the ground. She really should have thought that one through a bit better, Izuku caught himself in a one-armed handstand and flipped over onto his feet, earning a surprised gasp and soft clap from the girl and rolled eyes from Katsumi.

"Thanks for the help…" Izuku trailed off, looking curiously at the girl.

"Oh! Im Uraraka Ochaco, it's a pleasure to meet you, and it was no trouble at all, um… Deku-kun?"

Izuku frowned slightly. Where did this girl get that name from? He'd been looking forward to no longer hearing it as an insult. He moved to correct her, but before he could get word out, Katsumi had stalked over to the peppy girl and fixed her with a scowl full of a malice that Izuku had rarely seen from his friend.

"_Where_ did you hear that name, round face!?" she _snarled_, brandishing a crackling palm towards the girl's shocked face, "You know someone from our shitty middle school, _huh_?"

Woah... what was with _that_ reaction? Izuku knew she'd always felt bad about the way her blunder had resulted in the insulting nickname. Had he underestimated the girls guilt? But pondering that had to come later, first he had to calm a temperamental blonde.

"Kacchan, relax! Does she really look like she's even _capable _of bullying someone?"

They both turned to look at the girl, taking in the wide, innocent, chocolate-brown eyes, the youthful bob haircut and near permanent blush marks. They turned back to each other and Izuku could practically see the gears turning behind his best friend's eyes.

"Shit… I overreacted huh?" she bit out.

"Yuh."

She sighed, before turning resignedly to Uraraka, who to her credit, looked only politely curious despite practically being assaulted moments earlier. "My bad, Round face."

"Round face…?" she breathed curiously.

Poor girl, but she was handling some of Kacchan's more eccentric traits like a champ. It was impressive, really.

"Please don't take it personally," Izuku pleaded, clapping his hands together and smiling good-naturedly. "She just takes a while to learn new names."

That was a lie, Kacchan's memory was fantastic. He'd just neglected to mention that she had to be seriously impressed before she'd ever consider addressing _anyone_ by anything but a nickname.

"Oh, I totally get it, lots of new faces on a day like today, right? I hope you all do your best!"

Izuku was floored, the girl seemed to radiate a sense of energy and goodness like no one he'd ever met before. No one should be that happy! It was almost overwhelming, but certainly something he could eventually get used to. He nodded in agreement earning another beaming smile from the girl.

"Wow I was way off the mark wasn't I?" Katsumi muttered from his shoulder as she peered suspiciously at the new girl, who perked up at her voice.

"Oh right! Can… can I ask what that was all about back then? I didn't mean to offend anybody!" Uraraka's brows were furrowed adorably as she stared them down resolutely.

Ah, so she may have a fluffy exterior, but he guessed she was there for a reason as well. Izuku inwardly grinned, getting a bit of a better understanding of his new friend. "Don't worry about it, Uraraka-san, just a bit of a mix-up." Izuku tilted his head towards Katsumi scowling at his side. "This is Bakugo Katsumi and I'm Midoriya Izuku," he said, giving her a wave.

A look of realization came over her features, "_Oh_, I'm so _sorry_ I just heard Bakugo-chan call you Deku and… I just thought it had a kind of 'you can do it!' vibe? Was I wrong?"

A beat of silence.

"Too fuckin pure," Katsumi scoffed irritably, and Izuku hid a smile. He couldn't help but agree with the assessment. That was definitely one of the more complementary interpretations he'd heard of his nickname, but still…

"I'm flattered, Uraraka-san, and you're welcome to call me Izuku, or Midoriya, whichever's easier for you. But if you don't mind, Kacchan and I have known each other our whole lives and she really the only one who calls me Deku anymore." He hesitated for a moment, glancing to Katsumi. "I'd like to keep it that way if you don't mind."

Izuku grinned as Ochako practically had stars appear in her eyes, her face audibly swishing through the air she was nodding so rapidly in agreement.

What was _that_ all about?

Ochako left Izuku and Katsumi to find her assigned seat as they all filtered into one of UA's many massive gymnasiums. To Izuku it looked more like a futuristic rock stadium than any gym _he'd _ever seen. But it was an observation that made much more sense when moments later, Pro-hero: Present Mic (gasp!) took to the stage.

What followed was a general explanation of the practical exam delivered in the voice hero's typical fashion: loud and as flashy as possible.

Other than a particularly rule-abiding student chiding He and Katsumi for trading comments during the explanation, the rules were straightforward to an almost insulting degree.

_This_ was all it took to gain entry to the most prestigious school for hero work in the nation? Smashing robots? Sure, the theoretical exam weeded out the poor academic students, but there had to be something more to this practical, there _had _to be.

"Looks like they're separating applicants from the same regions," Katsumi said, peering over at his exam location.

"That's good, wouldn't want you to help me cheat, now would they?" Izuku said, almost managing to keep a straight face but failing in the end. Even Katsumi had to crack a grin at the absurdity of her helping the competition score more points.

"Go out and kill it, nerd," she said, holding out a fist. Izuku went to tap his own to hers but she pulled away at the last second. Her crimson eyes stared up at his own. Since when had he been so much taller? "Seriously _Izuku_, no more hiding, you're out of excuses now." Her grin turned feral, "Even _you_ can't complain about me killing _robots_, right? Think you can keep up when I don't have to account for fragile human bodies?"

Izuku had never been more terrified and aroused at the same time.

He shivered, hoping for his own sake that Katsumi never figured out the ironclad hold she had over him.

He managed to break out of his stupor enough to pound his fist into hers, being sure to coat his knuckles in quicksteel to protect them from the explosion he knew would occur.

"Let's go make our mark."

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

She fucking _knew_ this would happen.

Ten steps into UA and Deku'd already run into another girl that'd shown interest in him. Katsumi knew it had only been a matter of time, but she'd thought she had _more_ of it dammit! And even worse, even _she_ was having trouble hating round face. The girl was disturbingly cheerful.

A perfect match for Izuku.

Katsumi scowled and started limbering up, having been led to site D with a large group of fodder moments earlier. They certainly didn't look like much, and some puny weirdo with purple hair had been staring at her earlier. Blasting people before the exam even started probably wasn't the best decision though, so she shot him a glare instead, inwardly laughing at the violent flinch he gave. Izuku would have been proud of her restraint.

Katsumi pulled her ankle to her hips to stretch her hamstring while deliberating on how she'd tackle the exam.

Shoes, or no shoes? She was confident she had the firepower to top the charts with just her hands, but…

She shucked her shoes off and tossed them to the side of the starting line. How could she even _think_ of holding back after giving the nerd shit for it not ten minutes ago. Besides, this was practically her debut.

It was time to make a splash.

Katsumi hopped from foot to foot, throwing a few experimental jabs. The small puffs of smoke released from her hands and feet went mostly unnoticed by those around her. Some were yapping with other contestants, while others gaped around at the barren city in awe.

Had then never seen fucking _buildings_before?

Idiots, all of them. How they even _made_ it to the practical was a mystery to her. A select few like herself ran through simple warmups to prepare themselves for the challenge ahead. She committed those students to memory, they could easily be her future classmates.

Katsumi strolled casually to the front of the starting line, exhaling slowly through her nose and rolling her head languidly. They'd been sitting there for nearly five minutes, she'd be surprised if they didn't start sometime soo—"

"BEGIN!" Present Mic's vocal enhancement quirk boomed over multiple test sites, its power and range absolutely staggering to the contestants below.

Well, there we go. A grin split Katsumi's lips as she took two bounding steps to clear the first line of contestants.

It was then she _really_ on the afterburners. Dual explosions from the bottoms of her feet sent her rocketing ahead, while the other contenders, or stepping stones as she liked to think of them, were left reeling.

It was as the first applicant took a step forward that Katsumi's first offensive explosion rocked the city.

Not only had she gotten a head start on the other potential students, but she'd also rushed to an isolated spot with very little risk of collateral damage. Somewhere she could really go fucking _wild._

"Bring it on you fucking tin cans!" her palms ignited, flames reflecting in crimson irises, "Don't disappoint me!"

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Why are you even here!? Hoping to interfere?!"

Izuku was beginning to think that he was cursed... This was the _second_ time this particularly… studious applicant had given him shit today for no reason. Was it too much to ask to just stay out of the spotlight for _two_ seconds?

And _now _people were starting to take notice.

"He was talking during the briefing too!"

"Yeah, I guess some people just don't take this seriously."

"Hey, it's one less person to compete against, right?" another laughed.

"True, true."

The conversations around him only grew in volume as more attention was brought to the pair.

The student that had scolded him was tall. At least ten centimeters taller than Izuku himself and had bluish-tinted ebony hair. He was heavily muscled and wore a royal blue compression suit that left his legs from the knee down bare.

And for good reason _huh? _Izuku peered at what seemed to be _engines_ seamlessly merging with the boy's calves.

Where had he seen a quirk like that before? Izuku definitely recalled recording a similar mutation in his hero studies. It was just on the tip of his tongue, but the taller boy interrupted once more before he could figure it out.

The boy slashed a stiff hand through the air as if he was trying to chop something, repeating the motion several times. "There are students here that have worked their whole lives for this opportunity! It is indeed disrespectful for you to be here just goof—"

"I know." Izuku's words cut through the scholar's rant, silencing the taller boy with their intensity. "I'm one of them."

The boy gaped at the audacity of someone cutting him off. Had no one ever done that before? Izuku wasn't one to purposefully interrupt people, but this guy seemed like he had a rambling problem to rival the one Izuku'd had as a child. It was just delivered by lecture instead of mutters.

"One of what!? You are making no sense!"

There went that chopping again… what was up with that? But Izuku wouldn't judge, he'd met plenty of people with worse eccentricities. Hell, two of them were some of his closest companions.

"The students that have worked their whole lives for this opportunity? Yeah, I'm one of them."

Izuku fixed the boy with a piercing expression, eyeing the stiff posture and stern scowl fixed on his face. Izuku faltered slightly when he met the boy's indigo eyes, which remained kind and earnest despite the stern set of his brow.

Maybe the guy just combated stress with forced order? Either way…

"Look," Izuku sighed. He nodded towards the person who'd started the whole disagreement in the first place. "That girl, her name is Uraraka Ochaco—"

The boy flinched, eyes widening slightly.

"—and as you're starting to realize, I _do_ indeed know her, I _wasn't _trying to sabotage anyone, and yes, I _am_ taking this seriously."

Izuku strolled away with a huff, not paying attention to the boy's reaction to his words. Either he'd understand or not, but any further energy spent convincing him would only be wasted. Hearing the same _fucking _taunts from all those ignorant people of his youth had left him heated in that moment. This was supposed to be the day he left all that behind him, but once again he was reminded of the fickle nature of crowd mentality.

But that was easily remedied.

Izuku shucked off his shoes, reaching to the sky to stretch the muscles that had stiffened slightly while he had been idle.

All he'd have to do was prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he _belonged _here. That all the people that said he wasn't good enough were dead wrong. Quicksteel shimmered fluidly by his side, flexing every which way in a simplified imitation of its master's movements, before he reasserted control, meticulously molding his skyboard.

Izuku ignored the hushed whispers of those closest to him. They were sheep that had written him off just moments earlier, but he'd save them all the same. He'd show them that he _deserved _to be here. That he was meant to be a _hero._

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"BEGIN!"

Izuku took a running leap, his skyboard snatching him out of the air before he sped off, leaving the still-stunned participants gaping.

"What are you waiting for listeners!? There are no countdowns in real life! Go! GOOOOO! The die has been cast! Your destiny is in your own hands!"

Izuku bent low over his board to counterbalance the rapid acceleration as he cut lose with his quirk for the first time in _ages._ He skimmed mere meters away from the street surface, dodging abandoned vehicles and trees with an exhilarated shout.

This was the _best_! An arena where he could show what he was really made of after holding back for so long.

Biting wind cut harshly into his face but Izuku cut through the abandoned streets without giving it any thought. He surfed through the air with a wild abandonment, imagining a course to traverse before his eyes, weaving through stone pillars and utter losing himself to the sport of it all.

So much so that he'd almost forgotten about the exam itself when an amoured, vaguely crab-like robot crashed into his path.

Almost.

Without losing any momentum from his audacious trek through the city, Izuku tilted the nose of his skyboard up slightly as the mechanical villain unloaded a round of rubber bullets. While the ammunition obviously wouldn't inflict that same amount of damage as a typical bullet, taking a shot to the neck or face could possibly put some of the more fragile contestants out of commission.

They rattled harmlessly off the solid surface of his board of course, letting Izuku race towards the robot without fear.

The robot took a powerful swing with its clawed, mechanical arm, but Izuku had already leapt off his board straight into the air. He gave a satisfied smile as the machine's glowing reticle tracked his path through the air, only to get impaled a moment later on the pike that he'd molded from his board.

The quicksteel thinned out a moment later, catching its rider even as the once-threatening robot crumpled into a sparking, pitiful pile of scrap.

_Two._

Izuku sped off to a cluster of one-pointers that had gathered around what looked like an abandoned shopping mall just as the other applicants had started moving. The guns of the one-pointers had incredibly slow projectile speeds despite being able to inflict reasonable damage. Taking advantage of this fact, Izuku deftly weaved around them in the air, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

The faux villains apparently had a reloading system as well, perhaps to simulate a real-life situation? He grinned. Maybe it was just to give them a fighting chance?

He dropped to the ground, quicksteel elongating into familiar-looking katana. Izuku was no master with the blade, but what a waste it would have been to not pick up _any_ technique in his time with Chi-sensei. Besides, these buckets of bolts were hardly expert martial artists, he was more than capable of taking them on.

Izuku dove into he fray, ducking a wild swing and bisecting the mechanical offender with a swift slash of his blade. He spun around to dispose of another, his quicksteel weapon carving into their brittle outer plating like a hot knife through butter.

_Three, four._

Another one-pointer tried to pin him down with gunfire, but Izuku was too quick, having sprung backwards out of the way, sliding into a low crouch. He straightened up after a moment, slowly strafing to the right of his target like a predator stalking its prey.

For a moment, lively jade eyes met the artificial lens of the robot and both were still. Until Izuku's arm darted out with a light _swish_, a short knife that he'd split from the main mass of quicksteel imbedding itself in the glowing reticle. The faux villain collapsed, disabled completely by the precision of his throw, even as a glob of his metal slithered out of the smoking remains of the villain. He could only keep it hardened for so long after it had left his hand, but it was effective enough as a throwing knife. He'd been nicked by the things enough times in his spars that he'd eventually asked for some tips from the man. Looking back, perhaps he should have phrased his request better…

_Five._

Izuku flung several more knives at the various bots that had approached, ramping up their velocity with his telekinesis. They each sunk into their target with a satisfying crunch, but Izuku had already taken to the sky once more, the smaller globs of quicksteel trailing after the main mass that he stood perched on.

_Eight. Twelve. _

_Nineteen. _

_Thirty-six._

A duo of three pointers met their demise at the end of a lance of quicksteel, and Izuku turned to a street that was already littered with debris.

He wiped the sweat from his brow with a satisfied grin. Peering further down the road, Izuku saw that there were still some applicants taking advantage of the low-density area to take on the robots one on one. He let out a laugh at the sight of Uraraka flinging weightless mecha-villains into the sky only to drop them to their grizzly demise a moment later.

It went to show how versatile some quirks could really be.

Izuku ducked suddenly as a beam of white light sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow cut through the space where his head had just been. He turned with a cocked eyebrow to the source of the blast only too see another applicant looking _way_ too unconcerned for someone who'd nearly taken his head off.

"_Excusez Moi_!" The flamboyant boy called. Was that French? "It seems my aim could do with a little buffing up! _Au revoir_!" He skipped away with a wink, and Izuku could have sworn a twinkle had appeared next to his eye. Was that _really _a part of his quirk?

Strange

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

A cybernetic graveyard lay before her.

The pungent smell of gunpowder and smoking engines seemed to permeate the air, one of the many traces of Katsumi's path of carnage.

She'd carved through the mock city like a one-woman army, taking on every pitiful machine that crossed her path and leaving only destruction in her wake.

Flickering orange reflected off glassy crimson irises as Katsumi let out a calm, cathartic breath of smoggy air.

Was this all UA really had to offer? She could probably tear through these flimsy toys with her eyes closed! And they thought beating out the rest of these extras would be enough to pose a challenge? For _her?_

Yeah fucking right.

The one-pointers were speedy but caved under her blows like wet cardboard, and the two pointers weren't much better. The lower point robots were both at least equipped with guns that shot rubber bullets, but they had a fairly predictable firing pattern. Easy enough to avoid, and even easier to destroy.

It was the three pointers that really packed a punch. They looked like armored tanks with better mobility. Not to mention the aoe shock rounds that came loaded in their turrets. The shells would stun anyone within the vicinity of the detonation for a short duration.

But in an exam like this, a short time of inaction could be the difference between passing or not. The other applicants seemed to be avoiding them in favor of racking up points from the weaker of the three. It might have been a good strategy, and some might even say the test favored highly mobile quirks that could get to more robots in the short amount of time given.

The blood pumped in her veins and her palms crackled with anticipation. That was all well and good for quirks that were so limited in their use. She, however, was a cut above the rest.

Royalty among peasants.

Katsumi blast-jumped herself a good twenty meters above a cluster of six three-pointers that had cornered a group of students. They hadn't been paying enough attention and had trapped themselves down a dead end. She seemed to hang in mid-air, relishing the brief moment where she was free of gravity's hold.

"If you can't handle the damn heat then why are you even here!?" she growled with a grim smile.

It only widened as the cluster of robots stopped chasing the fleeing students, turning their optics up towards Katsumi. The momentum from her jump quickly waned and she let herself freefall in the same way Izuku had all those months ago. Katsumi used a burst of force from her palms to dodge the few shots that had been fired, before her right fist erupted in white-hot flame.

"What the hell is she doing?!" she heard someone call out.

"Someone, catch her! She's insane!"

Their comments only made her already manic grin widen. "Watch and learn, fodder! This is the difference." The white flame began to glow, and Katsumi _reveled_ in the heat that bit at her skin. It was tangible even from across the street where the other applicants stood frozen in shock. "We're simply of a different class!" She swung her fist in a downward arc, releasing her ironclad control on the writhing force contained within. "**_Scorched Earth_!"**

A high-pitched whine briefly filled the air, before the brightest point of the flame expanded, a thunderous _boom_ shaking the alley. The blast expanded, swallowing the cluster of three pointers, engulfing them in blazing white fire. Metal bodies glowed orange with the rapid heating and creaked ominously, before slowly melting into misshapen piles of slag.

Katsumi rode the force of her own shockwave, backflipping away from the splash zone with a feral grin. She'd gotten plenty of practice herself while she helped the nerd with his experiments. Regulating the type of explosion she caused with her quirk had become second nature by this point.

She'd never be able to break down the science behind what allowed her this freedom with her quirk, that simply wasn't Katsumi.

It wasn't how she worked. The specifications of what had wrought the destruction before her was a combination of a highly concentrated point of impact and extreme heat. Izuku could probably come up with a combination of whatever chemicals she secreted that resulted in this particular blast, but her strengths lied in other methods.

She'd just figured it out through trial and error.

Katsumi may have cackled a bit madly in that moment, but she fucking dared someone to say something about it. before kicking off with an explosive leap towards several of the cardboard-bots that a few applicants were _somehow_ struggling with. There was a certain beauty in the potential destruction she could cause with her quirk. Constantly keeping a lid on her explosive ability was something Katsumi was particularly diligent about, but finally, _finally_ she could just let it all go. Exploding whatever she wished with no repercussions.

She connected with the crowd like a bullet, using constant, small-scale blasts to aide her blows and mobility. Metal husks caved beneath her fists and in no time at all, the plaza had been cleared.

"Holy shit! This chick's been taking these things out like nothing!"

"I know! did you see that shit she pulled earlier?! She's gotta have over fifty points by now!"

"So manly!"

Wait, what was that last one!? She'd been content to ignore the comments of the extras, but did some _prick _just call her _manly_? The fuck was _that _supposed to mean?

"Oi, shitty hair! What the f—"

A low, rattling groan filled the arena. It was the kind of sound that could only be produced by something incredibly _large _and metal trying to shift its weight. Throttling the redhead could wait, it looked like the examiners were _finally_ getting serious.

A _massive_ mechanical arm smashed through one of the multi-story buildings a few blocks down the street, sending shattered glass, dust, and all kinds of debris raining down on the street below. Katsumi blasted through a particularly large chunk of concrete at it spun towards her with barely a twitch of her arm. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the mechanical monstrosity that was now rampaging through the faux city.

She rolled her shoulders, gauging how much more stress her arms could handle before she'd _really_ start feeling it.

Even _she_ might have some trouble taking something like _that_ down.

Its body was heavily armored for one. And _some_ sort of plating covered its exterior, everywhere but at the joints at least. Like a suit of armor, those areas were clear to allow a certain level of mobility.

Katsumi eyed the other students fleeing in terror from the giant as well as the lower leveled robots that now stood idle, no targets close enough for them to engage in combat.

What to do… The fodder-bots were so grouped and prime for the taking, but…

Her crimson eyes settled once more on the zero-pointer

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Were the examiners out of their damn minds!? What were they _thinking_ sending out something so… large? Dangerous? Well, there was a long list of things that were wrong with Izuku's current situation.

He'd just carried another applicant to safety after that god damn Zero-pointer started tearing the up the shopping district of his test site. The guy's quirk had reached its limit and left him vulnerable to the chaos caused by the massive robot's rampage.

Izuku left the applicant tucked away from the battle with a smile and some advice to stay out of sight until the end of the exam.

And wasn't that a kick in the ass, UA clearly wasn't above throwing their students into the deep end to get the best results possible.

It only reinforced the belief that this was where he needed to be, and nothing could take that away from him, not even some giant apocalypse-bot.

Izuku crouched low over his skyboard as he rocketed towards the source of the chaos, one hand resting on the surface to improve aerodynamics. He kept an eye out for the odd one, two, or three pointers that he could take out along the way, but by this point he was mostly looking for applicants that were being overwhelmed by the metal beast's destruction.

From his vantage point he could see several of the Zero-pointers lumbering in the distance, so far that he was unable to make out any specifics. In fact, if he didn't already have an example of its full size, he'd be curious as to what could appear so large on the horizon.

On another note, UA was _huge. _Even hundreds of meters into the air as he was, Izuku couldn't make out a definite end to the sprawling campus. It looked more like a small city than a school, the urban mock arenas and facilities only a small aspect of the grounds. He could make out rolling hills and fields as well, some containing growing crops and livestock. Was UA self-sustaining? He wouldn't put it past the prestigious academy but hearing about it and seeing such a sight with his own eyes were two entirely different experiences.

An echoing _crack_ accompanied by a harsh flash of bright light in the corner of his eye brought Izuku out of his admiration for his potential school, only to ignite his admiration for something else. Or some_one…_

That _had_ to be Kacchan's quirk, he'd recognize it anywhere. But seeing it from so far away? What had gotten her so riled up?

An irrepressible smile came to Izuku's lips a moment later, his eyes tracking the path of his own site's Zero-pointer. What an absurd question, of _course _she'd try to take it on.

Izuku swooped back down to street level as he approached the rampaging robot, dodging around fleeing applicants like some kind of oldschool arcade game. Seeing an armored three-pointer flanking the retreating group, he quickly drifted over and flicked his board up as a barrier, bare feet still planted firmly on the surface. Izuku felt the shot impact the bottom of his quicksteel in that brief moment he spent parallel to the ground.

A lance of pain suddenly arced up from the heels of his feet up through the rest of his body, his muscles seizing involuntarily. He'd succeeded in blocking the robot from taking out who knows how many unaware students, but in his rush to help he'd forgotten the logistics of trying to shield an electric shot with metal.

Despite quicksteel's relatively low conductivity, the jolt had been enough to break the fragile focus his quirk took to control. Izuku felt the exact moment his feet left the board, the material that molded seamlessly over his feet to keep him in place liquifying during his brief lapse in concentration. Izuku inwardly sighed, at least he had been skimming a mere foot off the ground, but there would definitely be bruises in the morning.

He was flung from the surface in that moment of vulnerability, and sent tumbling over the asphalt, hissing as the rough surface scraped at his exposed skin. He'd been able to twist enough in the air to avoid any serious injury. It wasn't quite catlike grace, but close enough for hero work.

Thank god he'd been wearing sleeves, but the palms of his hands and the bottoms of his feet were torn and bloody.

Izuku frowned as the warmth of the sun overhead disappeared. He blearily opened his eyes and peered into the looming form of the Zero Pointer, pendulous, mechanical limbs stretching from one side of the sky to the other.

Looking _up_ at the cybernetic monstrosity sure was a different experience than looking down from above.

Izuku let out a groan as he rolled up to a sitting position, already remolding his skyboard for a quick getaway. Katsumi could have her glorious battles all she wanted, he'd stick to evacuation as long as there were people to be evacuated.

Izuku stepped back onto the cool surface, hissing at the sensation on his abused skin. It was time to get the hell out of there. His skyboard hummed as he willed it to ascend.

One quick glance around told Izuku that most of the applicants had made it to a relatively safe distance away from the rampaging robot. He could wait out the rest of the time limit in the sky, out of the Zero-pointer's reach. He'd lost his exact count in the frenzy of the exam, but Izuku was quite confident he had enough points to pass. He'd be surprised if more than one or two applicants from his own test site had topped his score. Hopefully someone would deactivate it by then, or the examiners would at least do something to stop it.

There couldn't be _too _much time left could there?

Just as his eyes passed the second story level of the surrounding buildings a frenzied cry caught his attention.

On the street below and out of his line of sight when he was at ground level, was a familiar energetic young girl, though her face lacked its normally sunny disposition and was now twisted into a grimace of pain. A thick block of concrete had fallen from the Zero-pointer's rampage and pinned the brunette in place. Her arms were twisted at an awkward angle leaving her unable to use her quirk to escape.

The ground shook as the Zero-pointer took a perilous step forward, pulverizing an abandoned vehicle into scrap metal and getting close, _too _close, to the helpless girl below.

Izuku moved without a thought, his skyboard screaming through the air which seemingly distorted, leaving a slipstream trailing his path.

A heavy, armored limb began its descent and Izuku's blood ran cold.

He wouldn't make it in time.

At least not to get her out of danger. What should he do?! He couldn't stop something that like this monstrosity! Was there any way out of this situation?!

_'I want to be a hero,' that's what you said, right? _

Despite the desperation of the situation, the beginnings of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He leaned further over his board, hoping for an edge in his race against the metal monstrosity.

_Is your conviction really so weak?_

No, it wasn't.

It _isn't._

What kind of hero would he be if he failed to save the very first person that really needed his help?

Unacceptable.

Quicksteel liquified before he'd touched down in front of a trembling and wide-eyed Uraraka. Writhing tendrils of the metal surged to wrap tightly around his arms, merging into a seamless, gleaming coating spanning from the tips of his fingers to just past his muscular shoulders. The material flexed and shimmered along with his subtle movements, the ironclad control Izuku held over its shape keeping it just malleable enough to pose no threat to his dexterity.

"Midoriya…kun?" Uraraka choked out in a small voice.

She'd tell him years later that he'd given her a particularly encouraging look in that moment. But all Izuku could remember was grinning steadfastly through his pounding heart, racing thoughts and of course, the gripping fear.

"Don't worry Uraraka-san!" A confident smile, "I'll get us out of this!"

He barely registered the stunned nod before turning to the approaching _mountain_ of a fist. His world became restricted to the all-encompassing wall of metal. Izuku let out a long exhale, raising a glimmering arm with a casual air that belied the urgency of the situation.

A rattling _boom _shook the street.

oooOo Toshinori oOooo

"In this practical exam, the examinees have not been informed of the number of villains or their location…"

The diminutive principal of UA university happily lectured the observing teachers on the qualities they looked for in their applicants, though from the bored look on Aizawa's face the speech must have been for the new teachers' sake alone. From what Nezu had said so far, he needn't have listened.

Why?

Because the qualities UA looked for in its students were the same ones the world looked for in heroes!

Yagi Toshinori may have been new at the whole teaching thing, but if there was one thing he knew, it was heroing. That aside, he still paid rapt attention to his new boss, not quite having the temerity to slack off so brazenly as his colleague beside him.

"…Information gathering, the ability to understand the situation before anyone else. Mobility that can be used in many different circumstances, discernment to be able to stay calm in any situation. And, of course, pure combat ability."

The projected screens that displayed the various practical exam sites filled the room's walls, and Yagi wondered, not for the first time, if Nezu got off on acting the part of an evil super-genius sometimes.

He certainly had the lair down pat.

The images displayed cycled through the various applicants, settling on two faces that were familiar to him for some reason. Where had he seen those two before?

_I look forward to seeing what becomes of you two!_

Ah, so that's what it was! A jolt of excitement ran down Yagi's spine. How fortuitous that they would come seeking the guidance of UA the same year he'd begin teaching there.

He observed the ruthlessness shown by the fiery blonde, unsurprised but impressed nonetheless by her efficient dismantling of UA's vaunted technology. But the real shocker was the skill shown by the kind, green-haired young man he'd met the same day.

Yagi had written off his quirk as interesting enough, and useful for niche situations, but hadn't really taken the time to think about it any further. The boy, Midoriya, he remembered after a moment, may have had an impressive physique, but his soft-spoken and kind nature had stood out more to Yagi that day. Especially standing next to the brash and explosive girl by his side.

He realized now that he had been sorely mistaken about the boy's skill.

Midoriya tore through swaths of faux villains with a fluid grace that Yagi hadn't seen in many years. His abilities lacked the shock and awe factor of the girl's but had their own beauty to them. All Might was reminded slightly of the No. 3 three hero: Hawks, though there were glaring differences in their personalities. Even having met the younger boy for mere minutes, he knew Midoriya possessed a humility that was unfortunately absent in the popular pro.

"Doesn't this year's group look promising?" Nemuri drawled sultrily.

"Well, we can't know for sure yet," Powerloader snickered. He flicked open a glass case that had obscured a large red button. "Their true test is still to come." He pressed the button with a light beep, and the various teachers sat back to watch the show unfold.

And unfold it did.

Yagi sat with clenched fists as he was forced to watch as they subjected young hero hopefuls to what was most likely their first experience with despair. He knew it was necessary to weed out an applicant's true nature, but seeing people needing saving right before his eyes and being unable to interfere went against every instinct he had build up over his long career of hero work. But his attention was drawn once more by the mutters of the various staff as a familiar freckled face dove straight into the fray, grabbing various applicants that had been unable to get away from the rampaging Zero-pointer on their own.

Yagi's anxiety eased somewhat with every successful rescue, replaced by a sense of pride as he watched Midoriya zip around, _through the sky no less! _ to take incapacitated students to safety.

**How inspiring, Midoriya-shonen! Well done!**

He felt the familiar surge of energy stir in his gut, and clamped down on it immediately. Buffing up at a time like this would only be wasting the precious time he had left.

A gasp ran around the room as something else was shown on the monitors, a young brunette girl trapped under fallen rubble directly in the path of the lumbering robot.

"Be ready to cut the power," Nezu's voice cut through the murmurs like a blade, the seriousness of the situation reflected in his beady eyes.

Yagi's hand hovered over the button he'd been entrusted, a minor stipulation he'd added before he'd agreed to be a part of the examination process.

But a moment later Midoriya had moved, and in some spur of the moment decision he'd have trouble explaining later, Yagi decided to entrust this one to the boy.

An overwhelming threat.

The green-haired boy landed heavily in front of the looming monstrosity, staring it down with a smile. Yagi leaned forward, ignoring the shouts of his fellow teachers and staff.

How people acted after they experienced that for the first time showed their true nature. There was absolutely _no_ merit in taking on that faux villain.

"Yagi-sensei! Shut it down! It'll kill them!"

But that created the opportunity for it to shine brightly and rise to the surface. Yagi's emaciated face stretched into a misshapen grin, seeing a slight movement that wasn't quite clear on the monitors.

"Let's see what you're made of, my boy…"

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku had never in his life wondered what it might feel like to have a mountain dropped on his head. Had it been optimistic to think he could avoid the experience altogether?

Unfortunately, catching the fist of the Zero pointer was probably pretty close.

Izuku's limbs shook from the weight of the massive hunk of metal, his quicksteel-coated fingers biting into the many times larger fist. Dust and debris clogged his lungs and obscured his vision, but he and the girl behind him remained blessedly unharmed.

At least for the moment.

"Uraraka-san! are you okay!?" He shouted, not taking his focus off his quicksteel aided super strength.

"Y-yeah, I'm- alright." She coughed out.

"That's good," he smiled, "can you free yourself?"

He grunted as the pressure seemingly doubled, the ground underneath his bare and bleeding feet cracking with spidery fissures from the force.

He heard a cry of pain from behind him and chance a look over his shoulders, seeing Uraraka stretching painfully, trying to reach the chunk of concrete with all five fingers, but he knew just watching that she'd was only straining herself pointlessly.

"It's ok, Uraraka, don't hurt yourself!" she slumped to the ground with a pained wince.

He _had _to find a way to get her out of here. He looked around frantically, his quicksteel was already occupied with the Zero pointer, and Uraraka was suitably out of commission and the dust _still _hadn't cleared.

Just as he was about to do something drastic, well… more drastic, the indigo-haired boy from earlier came racing through the clouds of dust, engine-calves blazing. "Uraraka-kun! Surfer-kun! Are you alright!"

"_You_?" Izuku grunted but thought better of questioning such fortune. "Never mind, can you get her out of here!?"

The taller boy assessed the situation briefly before promptly giving a devastating kick to the block of concrete, angling it to avoid hurting the trapped girl. He scooped the smaller girl up in his arms, ignoring the quiet 'eep' she let out at the sudden movement. "What about you!?"

Izuku almost grinned despite the situation seeing how the guy's arms twitched even while holding Uraraka. He totally wanted to chop…

"I'll be fine," the quicksteel user grit out, finally turning back to the Zero pointer. "Just get clear, I'll take care of it."

It might have been the odd tone in his voice, but the taller student turned tail and obeyed immediately. Leaving a trail of dust behind.

Izuku smiled. He knew scholar-san was a good guy, and he showed it when it counted.

He flexed his metallic arms, rippling, reflective muscle writhed underneath as the Zero-Pointer's armored outer shell groaned from the stress. Izuku braced himself before pulling back his right arm, the quicksteel coating molded to a single, gleaming lance at the tips of his fingers. Engaging all the force he could generate with his quirk, as well as the natural strength of his body, Izuku jabbed the lance of quicksteel straight through the armoured fist with a wrenching crunch. For a moment the pressure persisted.

Then the robot _shuddered._

Izuku had no illusions about the kind of things he could do with his quirk if he were so inclined. Evil, _horrifying _things were possible if he were the kind of individual that had a need to inflict pain on others.

He'd spent so long trying to learn to harden his quicksteel, but in its liquid state it was just as dangerous, and exponentially more insidious.

A liquid could slip in between the cracks, probing for the weakest point. And with the ability to manipulate that material freely?

He could tear someone apart from the inside out.

Needless to say, he never planned to explore that aspect of his quirk… But against mechanical villains?

_Even _you_ can't complain about me killing robots, right? Think you can keep up when I don't have to account for fragile human bodies?_

Ah, so _this_ is what you meant? Huh, Kacchan?

The bus-sized arms of the Zero-Pointer bulged, stuttering and sparking as his quicksteel tore apart its fragile inner mechanisms.

The catastrophic failure of the bot's inner workings spread to its chassis, liquid quicksteel wreaking havoc on its electrical systems. The malfunctioning Zero-Pointer swung its other massive arm haphazardly, demolishing a random building to its side.

"Shit," Izuku bit out. He hadn't expected that, he'd have to end this before it destroyed anything else.

He clenched his right fist, still connected to the main mass of what was spread throughout the zero-pointer. What would be considered excessively violent or cruel against another human was simply efficient in this situation. A confident gleam shone in his eye, before his eyelids closed, and he willed every bit of force he could manage into the network of quicksteel.

"**_Judgment."_**

The piercing, _wrenching_ squeal of metal being torn asunder filled the air as his quirk tore through the weakest points in the thick armor plating. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, but Izuku was unrelenting in his brutality, making certain that the Zero pointer was permanently disabled. The machine's frame twitched erratically, unable to move its limbs due to its joints being locked by systematic failure.

Izuku heaved deep breaths of air, the mental fortitude needed to use his quirk on such a scale was incredibly tiring, if not in the straightforward manner of when he has had to deal with heat.

"AAANND TIME!"

The familiar voice echoed over the grounds and the Zero-pointer powered itself down, finally ceasing its fruitless struggles. The city was eerily silent following the chaos of the exam.

Izuku collapsed right there in the middle of the street, unharmed, utterly exhausted, but with an entirely satisfied grin splitting his face.

That was good enough, right, Kacchan?"


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I wanted to take a bit of extra time to consider a plot point of the chapter I'm currently writing, so I figured why not put out another chapter a bit ahead of schedule. There might be a bit more wait for the next one though since I'm off spring break as of Monday.**

**Enjoy.**

**Chapter 8**

Filling in the Gaps

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"What the heck, Izuku-kun?! You didn't _tell _me you were so totally _awesome!" _ Uraraka cried pumping a fist over her head. "You were all like," her voice deepened to a dramatic tenor "'_Don't worry, I got this._' And the robot was all, '_hand over the girl and I'll spare your life_!"

"Remind me when the robot talked agai—"

"And then pwushhh! Fwuaahh! Kshh!"

At this point Izuku didn't know weather to laugh or get her to the nearest hospital. He'd thought the girl was peppy before, but _this_ was a bit much.

Recovery girl had said there would be _minor_ side effects from her healing quirk.

_Minor!_

But Uraraka was acting positively loopy. It reminded him of that one time Kacchan had come back from the dentist a few years back. She'd been high as a kite on painkillers, and Izuku was _still_ waiting for the perfect moment to reveal the videos.

Speaking of which, Katsumi should have been there by now. He and Uraraka had been waiting for nearly half an hour already and the blonde's absence was starting to weigh on his mind.

Yet another cluster of applicants came walking out of the auditorium, but once again, the familiar pale blonde hair was nowhere to be seen.

Izuku racked his brain, trying to recall what some his friend's fellow examinees looked like. Was _this _group from Kacchan's test site? The guy with bright crimson hair looked familiar, but Izuku couldn't remember if he had seen his friend in the same group.

The muscular redhead was gesturing wildly to his friends, seemingly regaling the group with tales of something that had happened at their test site. Izuku wasn't really surprised considering there was a zero-pointer rampaging for each group of applicants.

As the cluster of students walked past the spot where he and Uraraka were waiting, he happened to catch the tail end of their conversation.

"-Yeah, dude, I'm tellin' ya it was _insane. _This chick _had_ to have had the most points out of all of us, but she just dove straight into the Zero-pointer like it was _nothing._ It was so fucking manly!"

Oh god, Kacchan, what did you get yourself into?

He'd been waiting just outside the auditorium where they'd started the day, and Uraraka had volunteered to keep him company. He peered over at the girl who he'd met only hours previously. She hummed happily under her breath, totally oblivious to his fretting. Her cheeks were possibly even _more_ rosy than usual.

Yeesh, Recovery Girl sure did a number on her.

"Uraraka-san, you're sure I'm not keeping you from anything more important?"

The brunette paused for a moment, eternal smile dimming somewhat. She nodded slowly, "I'm actually new to the city, I'll been staying in a hotel near the campus until I know if I got in or not, then I'll hopefully be living at the dorms."

_"Ah_, that's right," he nodded, recalling having to break the news to his mother. UA had started offering boarding to students in the hero course as a matter of convenience. Izuku imagined that having around the clock access to state-of-the-art training facilities would be fantastic. Not to mention it would complement UA's already immersive hero course. He'd certainly miss his mother _and_ her home cooking, but he was looking forward to taking the next step in his life.

"Oi, Deku, quit spacin out, nerd."

"Oh, Kacchan where have y— Kacchan!" Izuku's eyes widened in alarm, rushing over to the blonde girl. Her right arm was in a pale blue sling, propped at a right angle directly under her chest.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, nerd, I'm _fine," _she said, shoving him away lightly with her good arm.

"What do you tell _me _when I say that!"

She didn't have an answer for that, choosing instead to scowl irritably.

"Katsumi-chan!" Uraraka sung, chocolate eyes shining with concern. "What happened?"

Katsumi paused, narrowing her eyes at the other girl. She turned back to him, "What's up with round face?"

Izuku peered curiously at the blonde, "It's a side-effect of Recovery-Girl's quirk." He grinned slightly, "I'm actually a bit disappointed that you're not as loopy as she is." He sidestepped the expected swipe from the shorter girl but frowned when she let out a hiss at the sudden movement. "Seriously, Kacchan, what happened?"

She met his eyes silently for a moment before answering in a gentle tone. "I really am fine, Deku, and to answer both of your questions," she said turning briefly to Uraraka. "Recovery girl checked me out already. The ligaments in my shoulders are bruised but she said it would be healthier to let it heal naturally." Her lips turned up slightly, "that's probably why I dodged round face's genki-syndrome."

Izuku smiled in agreement, and Uraraka's grin didn't falter in the slightest.

"Uraraku-san, you said you had some time to kill right? Join us for Dinner?"

"Mmm, Alright!"

Katsumi grumbled inaudibly for a moment but eventually relented, "Fine! Round face can come, but _I'm _picking the place."

oooOoOoOooo

Even with Kacchan claiming full control of the restaurant selection, she was indeed a benevolent dictator, taking suggestions for places to from both Izuku, and their new companion.

After wandering the area, they'd settled on Tatsumaki Ramen, a small, family owned noodle shop located reasonably close to Uraraka's hotel.

He left his quicksteel floating off to the side of the entrance, the tiny room feeling cramped enough without his quirk, now the size of a medium sized beach ball, taking up even _more_ space. Luckily, not needing a bike lock was one benefit of traveling by skyboard.

The décor was traditional and welcoming, as was the server that greeted them at the door. She had straight, black hair pulled into a messy bun and looked to just a few years older than Izuku himself, maybe around mid-twenties? The shop's logo, a swirling vortex of noodles surrounding the characters in the name, was printed in a bright red over the woman's apron.

"Hello, sir!" she started with a bright smile. "Welcome to Tatsumaki Ramen!"

The fact that the woman only addressed Izuku while ignoring the two other girls was odd, but the server led them all to the bar regardless.

"Have you two been here before?" Uraraka said curiously. She peered around the small shop with a small smile.

Izuku shook his head. "Kacchan and I live on the east side of town, we took a train to get to UA today."

Uraraka's face lit up like a cherry, before the girl started stammering out a reply. "W-what?! You two already _live _together!?" She froze, rapidly waving her hands as she backtracked, "N-not that there's anything _wrong_ with that or anything, its just that we're still so young and that's rushing things a bit and—"

"Round face, quit your damn rambling!" Katsumi cut in harshly. "I swear you're fuckin worse than _this_ nerd used to be."

"I wasn't that ba—"

"Yes, you were," she snapped. "Half our fucking class used to copy your answers in first grade cus you couldn't stop muttering like a psycho during tests."

Izuku fell silent, pouting at her exaggeratedly. He wasn't _that _bad, right?

"That's what I thought, nerd," she said, smiling smugly."

He eyed her subtly, committing the rare expression to memory. A genuine smile really lit up the girl's fair features like nothing else. Her blonde hair looked almost golden in the dim lighting of the small ramen shop and her crimson eyes were expressive in a completely different way than many people described his own.

_Intense. _

That was a word that came to mind when he thought of his friend's ability to convey her thoughts through a simple stare.

"Why would you think I lived with Deku, anyway?"

Uraraka glanced away with a light flush, "Ah, um… well aren't you two like…" She held up an index finger from each hand and brought them flush with each other, "together?"

Katsumi spat out the large gulp of water she had just taken, sputtering incomprehensibly. "Me and _Deku? _Get fucking real, Round Face."

Ouch.

Uraraka looked genuinely surprised, large chocolate brown eyes widened to even more extreme proportions. "What?! Was I wrong? You two play off each other like some sort of quirked power couple! There's no _waay_ you aren't together!"

Wow… she was really worked up about this. It was nice to have someone rooting for him, even if she didn't really know it. But did he and Katsumi really act like Uraraka had said?

"We've been friends for years, Round-face. _Friends, _got it?"

Izuku sighed… He understood the need to set Uraraka straight, he really did.

But… friend? That word just seemed so inadequate to describe what he felt for Katsumi. They'd known each other long enough to practically be siblings. His love for her was layered and complex, a familial bond just a small part. However, most of him yearned for her in a way that was about as far from brotherly as you could get.

"Have you decided what you'd like to order yet sir?"

He frowned. The waitress was back, and she was once again ignoring his company. "I don't know," he said slow, narrowing his eyes at the girl. "Uraraka-san? Kacchan? Go ahead, my treat," he said smiling softly.

Uraraka practically created a wind tunnel worthy of the shop's name with how fast she waved off his offer. "Oh, nonono, I couldn't do _that." _Her mouth said one thing, but with the way she was salivating at the menu…

"Just take the damn free food, round face," Katsumi bit out. "Deku wouldn't offer if he didn't mean it." She turned to the waitress, "Gimme a C set with spicy miso, no bean sprouts."

The brunette looked properly chastised but still hesitant to take what might be seen as charity. "You're sure?" she asked softly.

"Of course! We're all gonna be UA students after all," Izuku said in a rare show of confidence. He couldn't help it, after the ordeal with the zero pointer he had nearly forgotten about the reason they were all out there risking their lives that today. But after all that was dealt with, he _had _remembered that he had just taken perhaps the most important exam his life. Not only that, but he had _killed _it, just like he'd promised the blonde in front of him.

He peered at the girl, noting the familiar way her brow pinched as she traded barbs with their new acquaintance. Maybe Katsumi would finally have a girlfriend of her own to rely on. As close as they were, there were probably experiences she was missing having him as her only friend.

His eyes trailed down to the sling that she'd stubbornly flung to the floor after a mere two minutes of trying to use chopsticks with her left hand.

Katsumi hadn't said much about her own exam, had it gone well? How did she get hurt? He couldn't imagine any of the faux villains ever getting the drop on her. Maybe the Zero-pointer? That guy from before _had _said something about that. What was it again…?

"The hell you starin' at, nerd?"

The waitress had left their table in his brief moment of inattention and for some reason, didn't look very happy as she walked away. But wait! He hadn't given his ord—

"Shoyu with pork belly right?" Katsumi tilted her head in askance. "I ordered for you since you were so spaced out, what's up with that?" Her eyes narrowed in curiosity, and Izuku almost immediately felt compelled to give her what she wanted. Luckily, indulging his own curiosity was what he craved in the first place.

"How'd your exam go?"

She twitched, and Izuku latched onto the tell like a seasoned card shark. "More importantly, how did you get hurt?"

"Don't worry about it, nerd," she said, inspecting a print that hung on the closest wall with particular intensity.

"What? couldn't handle the three pointers huh?" Izuku said, nodding sagely.

He could barely contain his laughter at the sheer indignation that came over Katsumi's features.

" 'The hell do you think you're talkin' to, Deku? _Huh? You wanna die?_" Her voice dropped an octave lower and gained a bit of a growl.

Uraraka shrunk in her seat, practically shivering at the blonde's glare, but Izuku remained unphased. He'd known her his whole life and could tell when she was _really_ pissed, this was just another Sunday to him.

"Then what happened?" He shrugged.

"Ill tell you what fuckin happened, I showed that shitty Zero-pointer who was boss!" She said, leaning aggressively over the tabletop, _daring_ him to disagree.

"Oh… you too?" Uraraka said innocently.

A pause.

"The hell do you _mean_ 'you too'? What the fuck?" Katsumi's gaze snapped between he and the brunette so quickly that for a moment, he feared for her spine.

Okay, that was a pretty good reaction too. Izuku grinned, before regaling her with the tales of his own exam, Uraraka chiming in her own perspective every few minutes.

…

"—so it went haywire when I flooded its circuitry," Izuku said, thinking back to the exam he'd taken barely three hours previously. "It took out another building before I locked it down for good, I shouldn't have hesitated," he said softly.

"The joints, right?" Katsumi said leadingly. "Don't worry about it, took me _ages _to bust through _my _scrapheap. They used some kind of heat-resistant metal or some shit." A grin exposed rows of white teeth, "But it died eventually."

He ignored the malice emanating from the girl, instead posing a question that had been on his mind all night. "Death of inanimate objects aside, how many points do you think you got?" He was genuinely curious how he'd compared to the girl.

"Wouldn't you like to know, nerd?" Katsumi said with a sly look.

Of _course, _she'd make him wait. She knew how much the tension of waiting got to him. "

So entranced was he with his conversation, Izuku never noticed Uraraka sitting with wide, attentive eyes, quietly slurping her noodles while the show unfolded before her.

oooOo Ochaco oOooo

Uraraka hadn't known exactly what exactly to expect when she had left her humble little Kansai town of Asahi for the big city. Her home town was quite literally the smallest in terms of actual size in the Mie Prefecture, and came in at an astounding population of just under ten thousand people. Adjusting to the literal _millions_ of people who lived in Musutafu had certainly been a colossal undertaking for the bubbly girl, but she had to make her parents proud! The fact that someone from her modest community had even gotten a chance to _take _the UA entrance exams was cause for celebration. Such was the nature of a small town.

She'd heard rumors from her friends and family over the years about the kind of bizarre things she would see and experience in such a large city but had hoped to reserve judgement for when she'd actually made the move herself.

That was the whole point of such a huge change, right? New experiences? Well, that, and helping her family's construction business in the only way she could of course.

Besides, there couldn't _really_ be villain attacks _every_ afternoon, _right?_

There were.

She'd just arrived in the city by bullet train, and in the short time between the train and her hotel, the entire block was held up by an _actual _bus-jacking orchestrated by a villain in a full-body wrestlers costume, mask and all.

A real-life Luchador! Ochako couldn't believe her eyes! It was too bad the guy was evil and all, the costume was really cool…

But just as the novelty of the situation began to wear off and Ochako began to genuinely worry for the safety of those involved, an _actual _Pro arrived on the scene!

Villain activity was a rarity in the agricultural flatlands of her home, and as a result, she rarely got to see heroes in action that wasn't through a computer monitor.

She was never particularly interested in Gunhead himself, besides of course the respect she held for heroes in general. But seeing him stop the runaway bus single-handedly was totally inspiring.

And the man's adorable demeanor in his interview after the incident had been resolved?

He was so freakin cute! What the heck!?

But it wasn't until the day of the exam that Musutafu really revealed what it had in store for her.

She had nearly made herself sick that morning with all the worrying. Would her preparation be enough? Would they hold her less-than-stellar test scores against her? The what-ifs of the exam were overwhelming, overriding any logical or clear thought in her mind.

That is, until she'd tried to help a stranger, and instead met two people who were just _strange_.

Izuku and Kacch-Katsumi, were the most amazing, dysfunctional, talented, absurd pair she had ever had the opportunity to meet.

They were nearly polar opposites in terms of personality. From what she could tell in the little time she had known him, Izuku was as kind as he was honest, while Katsumi was standoffish in her best moments and downright terrifying at her worst.

But it was obvious to Ochako, and anyone with half a brain really, that they _adored _each other, even if the green-haired boy showed it more overtly than his counterpart. They were the coupliest not-couple that she'd ever met, and Uraraka wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry as they danced around the subject, all while casually discussing how they'd taken on their zero-pointers.

Like it was freaking _normal!_

But if there was one thing she learned today, it was that Izuku was _strong. _

Like... _really_ strong. Just from the first couple minutes of the exam, she'd realized he was stronger than anyone she'd ever met before, and from the way the two spoke to each other, Katsumi was just as powerful, if not more so.

The thought that she'd have to compete with people like _this_ in her chosen career was a daunting prospect. But the fact that they would be her peers and not her enemy was a comforting consolation.

This became even more apparent when Izuku had practically eviscerated the rampaging Zero-pointer _and_ saved her life in the process. She'd bet he'd still gotten the top score, even _after _taking the time to cover up for her screw-up.

Hopefully Iida-kun hadn't lost too many points either, he'd been quite gentle when carrying her to safety.

So here she sat, alone in a cheap hotel after her new friends had paid for her dinner _and _made sure she got to the door safely. For once, despite the uncertainty of it, she was quite looking forward to whatever the future had in store.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

They'd dropped Uraraka off without any hassle before deciding to pay a visit to Katsumi's place before he headed home himself. It had been a while since Izuku had last seen the girl's parents and he figured a visit was due.

The Bakugo family residence was a modest-sized home, especially for the kind of salary Kacchan's parents both raked in. Masaru worked as a fashion consultant for well-known TV personalities, and Mitsuki worked part time as a model for the same company.

Even now as he strode through the entrance to the small, two-story home, Mitsuki glided down the staircase in a blood red knee-length spaghetti strapped cocktail dress and a pair of strappy high heels.

"Well, well, who's the hunk that followed you home, brat?" The Bakugo mother drawled to her daughter as a broad grin stretched over perfect cupid bow lips.

"Kacchan?" He said turning to the girl with feigned confusion. "You didn't _tell _me you had a sister?

Izuku of course felt the familiar stirrings of embarrassment but shoved them to the wayside after a brief moment to center himself. Ever since he'd reached a certain age, aunty Mitsuki never missed an opportunity to playfully flirt with him.

The first time she'd done it a few years back he'd been out of commission for a good half hour. but putting up with all the shit Katsumi had given him _after_ that had been a much more lasting punishment. Luckily, he'd gotten accustomed to the older woman's wiles with time.

Mitsuki barked out a laugh while Katsumi simply scowled as she usually did whenever her mother laid on the charm particularly thick. He wasn't sure why, it was all in good fun after all. The Bakugo mother took long, sensual strides towards him before pulling the boy into a tight hug. Izuku had no illusions about how she intentionally pulled his face to her body's _assets._

"It's been too long, kid, why don't you ever come around anymore? How'd the exam go? Meet any girls?" she teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Okay! I'm outta here! You coming, nerd?" Katsumi cut into her mother's excited probing, much to the older woman's obvious amusement. Katsumi yanked his arm out of her mother's grip and pulled him none to gently up the stairs.

Izuku turned back to Mitsuki all while being manhandled up the stairs, "One, I was here last weekend and you know it. Two, we killed it, probably. And three, yes, Uraraka-san is quite nice, but uh…." His eyes flicked towards the girl behind him, and Mitsuki shot him a commiserating look in response. She'd probably known about Izuku's affection for her daughter even before _he _did.

"Yeah, well…" The Bakugo mother actually looked sheepish for a moment. "I guess time's moving a bit fast since the brat here will be leaving the roost pretty soon, good luck kid," she muttered under her breath.

He'd certainly need it.

At least if Kacchan's earlier opinion on a relationship between he two of them had been genuine. He had a feeling it wasn't the _whole_ truth. She tended to blurt things out without thinking in tense situations.

But _gah! _How the hell was he supposed to ever muster the courage to take the plunge himself if he was constantly hearing stuff like _that_?!

They finally made it to Katsumi's room, which was significantly more spartan than his own. Granted, there was the odd hero poster hung up on her walls, Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu, and Rabbit hero: Miruko, were some of the most prominently featured.

Izuku grinned, it was no wonder Kacchan was drawn to those two. He imagined she'd turn out to be a hero just like them when she went pro. A badass chick who could kick the shit out of anyone they came up against.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

A punching bag hung in one corner of the room, its outer skin already having been replaced several times over the years. The latest of which, they'd had to custom order a special material that could withstand the girl's increasingly powerful blows.

That was around the time she'd adopted a training intensity to rival his own. That was back when he was still training with Chi-sensei. He should have known she wouldn't have let him get an edge over her, even if it meant busting her ass to an equivalent degree.

"Old hag doesn't know when to let up!" Katsumi bit out through a groan. She stripped off her hoodie and rolled her shoulder experimentally, wincing as the sore muscles protested the movement.

Katsumi only had a sports bra underneath, the shirt she'd worn to the exam had been discarded immediately, torn and singed as it was.

But now here she was, clad in only a pair of yoga pants and sports bra, looking positively divine, and somehow expected Izuku to hold a normal conversation.

Did she really not know how that lithe body of her's drove him absolutely crazy?!

Izuku surpressed a shiver and ambled over to where the girl sat perched on her bed. "Why'd you even take the sling off, Kacchan?"

She gave him a look as if he was being particularly dense. "My mom may not worry like yours, but you _know _she still woulda' given me shit about getting hurt."

"Fair enough," he said, shrugging. "But you know it just means she cares."

He hesitated a moment. Should he? Ah fuck it.

"C'mere," he said, scooting closer to the girl. "Turn around."

"The fuck are you doing?"

"Just do it, trust me."

She eyed him warily, but eventually turned her back to him.

Well, no turning back now.

He looked her over appreciatively. Katsumi's toned, but unmistakably feminine shoulders and back curved into a deceptively slender waist. The smooth, lightly tanned skin disguised the sheer power she could put out in a moment's notice.

But Izuku knew, which only made his next choice even more of a risk.

She tensed at his first touch but made no other protest other than glancing over her shoulder questioningly.

"Relax," he breathed, and gently applied more pressure to the girl's knotted muscles, all the while trying to follow his own advice. His heart _pounded_ in his chest, threatening to burst through his ribcage any moment now.

This was for Kacchan. It was to help relax her sore shoulder. Just because he'd wanted to touch her like this for _years_ didn't _mean_ anything. He wasn't doing this just to be selfish.

He _wasn't_.

But she didn't seem to mind so much, letting out an appreciative groan that sent a tingling feeling straight to his lower gut. She _had _to be fucking with him, right? There's no _way_ a noise like that would come out of his friend by accident, _right?_

But little by little, she seemed to relax under his ministrations, eventually laying flat on her stomach to allow him a better angle. He tried to ignore the way the elastic material of her yoga bottoms clung to her curvy rear, he really did. But straddling her legs as he was, there was absolutely nothing to hide how absolutely delectable it looked.

His cheeks burned at the thought. Cut it _out _man! How could he sit here and ogle his best friend under the pretense of helping her through her pain!?

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Why hadn't anyone _told_ her that Deku had magic fingers!?

Katsumi surreptitiously bit her pillow lest she let out another horribly embarrassing sound like she had earlier. She was already mortified enough as it was, no need to make the nerd's head any bigger that it already was.

Except… that wasn't true. That was the fuckin' anti-truth. Her best friend was a god damn teddy bear and could _use_ some more ego. He was honest, doting, and most importantly of all knew when to fuck off if she was in one of her moods. Not to mention—

"Mmngghf—"

_Shit! _This was how it would all end. Not crushed under the overwhelming power of some maniacal villain in throes of battle. Nah, she'd be done in by her friend's killer fucking massage.

Aaaahh! Why the _hell_ did she have to act like a blushing fucking schoolgirl when Round-face had sprung her absurd misunderstanding on them? She'd been trying to work _towards_ making Deku hers, not _away_ from it! It should have been _easy_! They already spent nearly every day together, with obvious exceptions, how hard could it be to say: 'Nerd, we should definitely smash.'

Well… she was still working on the delivery, but it was the root of the whole thing.

She shivered as his thumbs trailed slowly down her spine, dexterous fingers ghosting past her ribcage and sending tingles arcing throughout her body. Slowly but surely, Katsumi felt all the tension that had built up over the day, and quite possibly the year, fluidly wick out of her body.

"Ok, what the _fuck_, nerd?" she bit out. "You're sure we got your quirk right?" She couldn't help it, it felt really fucking good. Izuku was straddling her waist, and though he was careful to keep most of his body weight off her, she still felt his presence above, pinning her to the mattress.

She didn't _dis_like it.

"I'm afraid so, but I can use that too if you like?"

Before she could register that statement, Katsumi felt a sensation both incredibly familiar and curiously foreign.

She knew the touch of his quirk like the back of her hand. Its glossy, reflective and wonderfully _cool_ surface was nothing new. But the feeling of having it mold to the planes of her back was both incredibly strange and wonderfully soothing to her overworked muscles. Izuku worked her lower back with powerful knuckles while his quirk soothed the areas he'd already passed by

She let out a sharp hiss, sucking in a large gulp of air. It felt good, but _shit _that was cold. Even more so given the situation.

"Sorry!" Izuku said softly.

"Shi— no its ok, don't stop," she said waving airily over her shoulder. "Just… a little heads up?"

"Yeah, no problem," he said after a moment. She couldn't see his face, facedown as she was, but the smile was clear as day in his voice.

Katsumi wasn't quite sure how long she laid there under the tender care of her best friend. But neither of them made any mention of the fact that the soles of her feet weren't really injured. Nor were her calves, and if Izuku got a little adventurous at the tail end of her lower back? Then maybe she still had a better chance than she thought.

A happy little grin tugged at her lips.

_Bang! Bang! Bang! _"Alright brat! Plenty of time to get busy when you move out! Inko's probably worrying herself to death waiting to hear how the exam went!"

…

Well… it was nice while it lasted.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"One hundred ninety-eight…"

It had been a week since that night, and Izuku had hardly gone a moment where it _wasn't_ on his mind.

"One hundred ninety-nine…"

He'd taken to training even more than his usual absurd regiment lest he start daydreaming again. The more exhausted he was, the less opportunity he had to think about Kacchan's piercing gaze, those athletic thighs and that a—

"Two _hundred_," he bit out with a bit more force. He flipped down from his single quivering arm, and the world was right-side up once more.

His training wasn't _all_ distraction of course, _that _was just a convenient side-effect. Izuku was _not_ happy about being knocked off his board during the exam and was working to remedy the oversight immediately.

The spill had been caused by being unable to stay focused while taking damage. While he was already quite practiced at fighting and gliding simultaneously, having to split his focus in a chaotic situation like the exam had proven too much. At least while being jolted by electricity.

So he was doing his usual sets of one-armed handstand pushups, only this time balancing on a plate of quicksteel. He was also using a smaller amount, separated from the main mass which drifted nearby. Hopefully doing so would strengthen his economy, and stop him from thinking about smooth skin an—

"Gah! Get it together man!"

Suddenly his door banged open, which was odd because his mother was usually extremely considerate of his privacy. But there she stood in his doorway, practically vibrating with excitement, and in her hands was—

"Izuku, honey, it's here!"

Wow, had he really been _that _distracted this week? He'd nearly forgotten about the exam results!

After she handed off the package his mother quietly left him to open the message alone.

See, considerate.

Not seeing the point in delaying any longer, he tore open the letter.

Only for a round, metallic disk to drop out onto his desk. The lens on its side flickered to life, and a moment later a blue-tinted image appeared floating above the device.

"**I am here, as a projection!"**

Holy shit, it's All Might. Somehow… only he could pull of a suit like that.

"**Yes, it is I, All Might, and considering who I'm speaking to, you'll soon know me by another name!" **the man paused dramatically.

**"Sensei!"**

No…way… This… this was _huge_. Learning from the symbol of peace himself?

Holo-Might spread his arms grandly, his wingspan leaving the sides of the floating frame.

**"Now! you're probably wondering about your exam results, Midoriya-shonen! I can say with utmost certainty that you will be a credit to this fine institution. You passed the written exam in the top twenty, but most importantly performed most prodigiously in the practical aspect of the exam! In fact, it would have been a record-breaking performance, if it wasn't for a young woman who you're probably quite familiar with! Behold!**

**1\. ****Bakugo Katsumi 123**

**2\. ****Midoriya Izuku 109**

**3\. ****Iida Tenya 75**

**4\. ****Yosetsu Awase 71**

**5\. ****Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 69**

**6\. ****Tokoyami Fumikage 67**

**7\. ****Kirishima Eijiro 59**

**8\. ****Shiozaki Ibara 56**

**9\. ****Uraraka Ochako 48**

**10\. ****Kendo Itsuka 45**

One 'oh nine, that wasn't too bad. A slow smile came over his face. Kacchan finally got her number one. She deserved it.

**"But wait, that's not all!" **All Might's smiling head peeked over the floating numbers.

There's more?

**"Indeed! This exam you see…! We weren't just watching for villain-based points!"**

That was… a relief actually. The thought that such a prestigious institution would test its applicants with such a one-dimensional exam was… alarming to say the least.

**"Think we are mere celebrities, only prancing around for the cameras? Think again! In this job, you risk your life and put your money where your mouth is."**

Izuku knew that better than most. He'd had it beaten into him at a young age by his only friend's misguided actions, but that was all in the past.

**"A hero course that rejects those who do the right thing…is no hero course at all! The addition of RESCUE POINTS, causes a significant shift in the standings you see!"**

The symbol of peace swept a hand dramatically through the air, and the floating names and scores blurred briefly before they rearranged themselves accordingly.

**"Congratulations, Midoriya-shonen! This is your hero academia!"**

**1\. ****Bakugo Katsumi 153**

**2\. ****Midoriya Izuku 153**

**3\. ****Iida Tenya 110**

**4\. ****Kendo Itsuka 99**

**5\. ****Kirishima Eijiro 92**

**6\. ****Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 92**

**7\. ****Tokoyami Fumikage 89**

**8\. ****Shiozaki Ibara 81**

**9\. ****Yosetsu Awase 75**

**10\. ****Uraraka Ochako 71**

Izuku sat in stunned silence, barely registering his own hand as it reached for the phone buzzing in his pocket.

**Kacchan [11:23 am]: This changes _nothing, nerd!_**

**Kacchan [11:24 am]: You can keep your fucking deus ex machina points, we'll settle this at UA! **

He huffed out a breathy laugh before typing a short response.

**You [11:24 am]: Never change, Kacchan**

**AN: Whew! So that's a thing… I wanted to explain my reasoning for how I placed the top ten, though you can skip it if you don't' really care, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. **

**I've tweaked the canon top ten to account for an extra three years of physical and quirk-based development. Though this wouldn't be as significant a change as if those three years were spent in a hero course, I feel like it would be irresponsible to ignore the obvious physical changes we go through between ages 15 and 18, so the scores are inflated a bit. Katsumi, having been training as much as Izuku has the extra advantage of a quirk that lends itself well to hitting multiple opponents, and so will obviously have a score that reflects that.**

**Some of you might have noticed in the last chapter that she actually saved some other applicants, even if it was by accident. Also, Uraraka _barely_ scrapes by the top ten in this situation, since she never has the chance to save Izuku herself, she misses out on those juicy rescue points. In fact, in canon, disregarding the threat to her life, Uraraka might have not even _passed _if Izuku didn't present that opportunity. We don't know if her 45 rescue points all came from that last scene or not, but without them she had 28, which, depending on how close the scores were, could quite possibly not be enough. **

**An Urarakaless UA… _spooky._**

**On another note, this chapter gets a bit steamy but is obviously still well within a T rating…**

**So uh… how lewd are we getting with this one? Thoughts?**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I _think_ this chapter's good, but you never really know until you people read it. You're looking at a similar wait for the next one. Now that we're entering UA there's so many new characters to consider when writing dialogue that I find myself struggling at times. Izuku sticking to a small group of friends certainly helps in that regard. Hopefully I do them justice in this chapter even if it isn't quite long enough to give everyone appropriate screen time. If your favorites don't show up in this one there's plenty of time in the following chapters!**

**Enjoy!**

**edit: holy shit it's 9k words? how the hell did _that _happen?**

**Chapter 9**

The Elite

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Pffft! You guys even matched _scores_! I _can't _be the only one that sees this!"

"Shut the _fuck_ up, round face! No one asked you!"

Izuku was beginning to revise his opinion of Uraraka. The girl could be downright devious when it came to delivering beatdowns with an innocent smile. Or maybe this was a special case… She seemed to know how to push all of Kacchan's buttons, all while rolling off his friend's normally off-putting attitude.

He didn't know quite what to make of it.

The three strolled down the massive hallways of UA for the second time in their lives, but unlike the day of the exam, Izuku could actually take the time to admire the prestigious school this time around.

_His _prestigious school.

The thought made him giddy with anticipation. Analyzing the average person's quirk had a certain appeal, and Izuku loved trying to puzzle out uses for supposedly mediocre abilities that people had written off as useless.

But these were the elite. Students hand-picked by practicing pros that were judged to not only have the physical abilities of potential heroes, but also the drive and passion to follow that dream. He'd said it before, but the career of a pro hero was probably the most sought-after position in existence. There was no shortage of people who aspired to be one of those rare symbols of justice. These were the cream of the crop, those who had actually succeeded where so many others had failed.

What would his class be like? There were probably some amazing quirks. Hopefully he could hold his own…

"Oi, Deku."

Katsumi had stopped in the middle of the hall, turning to face him eye to eye. Despite having to look down, Izuku still felt overwhelmed by her presence. He imagined that she cut an intimidating figure to most, but Kacchan had always held a certain sway over him.

Izuku sighed, he was doomed.

He met her eyes, tilting his head in question.

"You were probably thinking some shit like, 'these guys are gonna be amazing' right? No, don't answer, I could see it on your face." Her crimson eyes flickered away briefly before locking back onto his own. "How many points did you score?" She said, poking him harshly in the chest.

"I thought you sai—"

"How many points?!"

"One fifty-three," he bit out. And if a bit of petulance seeped into his tone then no one mentioned it.

"Right, and how many did second place have?" She asked leadingly.

"One fifty-thr—"

"You know what the _fuck _I meant, Deku!"

Ok, that one may have been on purpose, but who could blame him?

"One-ten, and you've made your point." And she really had.

Without realizing it, he'd fallen back to old habits in this unfamiliar environment.

And that simply would not do.

"Damn straight I have!" she said, clapping him on the shoulder. "We're the shit, _got it_? We're record breaking prodigies that _finally _made it out of that shithole public school. And we're gonna go crush some weak-ass One-tens like bugs!"

He had to pick around the profanity and narcissism a little, but at the heart of it all, it really was a pretty good pep talk.

"Um… Iida-kun was actually pretty nice, so can we avoid crushing him please?" Uraraka said from where she had stood observing their heated conversation. "Also, that was super cute, Bakugo-chan."

Izuku could see what little dignity Kacchan felt she had left die inside, before she scoffed and stomped off towards their classroom.

"Was it something I said?" Uraraka questioned with an air of innocence. She somehow managed to make it look both practiced and completely natural.

_Scary._

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku stepped through the abnormally large door into class 1-A. Uraraka trailed in behind him, but was bit sidetracked by her distorted reflection in Izuku's quicksteel where it floated over his left shoulder.

Well, it was better than being a nervous wreck like himself. He'd internalized his panic of course, a better poker face was one thing that _had_ come to him with age.

Before him sat around twenty or so students of widely differing appearances, but each unique and distinguishable in their own way.

For some, like the guy with rounded _tape dispensers_ for elbows sitting closest to the door, that was due to an obvious mutation from their quirk. But others, for example the muscular, crimson-haired guy he recognized from the exam seemed to stand out without needing any kind of ability. The guy with the head of a raven in the back of the class had a particularly striking appearance, and Izuku was already salivating at the thought of puzzling out the logistics behind the invisible girl in the front row. At least that's what he assumed was the explanation behind the floating skirt and blazer.

Holy shit, it was like a class full of main characters! Was this what it meant to attend UA? To be one of the very best in the country?

"Please remove your feet from this desk! It is indeed disrespectful to both the prestigious Alumni that came before us as well as the carpenter that so meticulously crafted said desk—"

Wait... that lecturing tone was familiar… Only one person he had met before could deliver such a robotic reprimand. But who had been _luck_y enough to earn his attention this time?

"—not to mention it is quite unlady-like! Are you _trying_ to show everyone your undergarments!?" A muscular forearm chopped through the air to level an accusing finger at…

Aww _c'mon_, it was only the first day!

"_Haaaah_?! You trynna sneak a peek, engines?" Katsumi lounged back into her seat like a cat, shifting her legs slightly.

Izuku's eyes were immediately drawn to the movement, and he sent a silent thank you to whoever had turned the girl onto thigh-highs. At least if Kacchan got into a fight and got them both kicked out on the first day, he'd have this memory as a consolation prize.

A wicked grin split across her face as Iida sputtered incoherently.

Izuku had approached the scene before he'd even realized. Even though he knew she was just riling up the poor guy, something about the situation left a bad taste in his mouth. The simplest solution he could come up with was to plant himself directly next to the girl. Perhaps he stood a bit closer than necessary, but nobody made any mention of it.

His quicksteel vibrated with agitation, earning some curious looks from his nearby classmates, but there was something more important to deal with right now. He sighed; Kacchan was on a roll…

"Unladylike _huh_?" she spit out, and Izuku could hear a bit of true irritation there behind all the bravado. "You're from one of those fancy shit prep schools _right_?" Her blood red eyes narrowed dangerously at the taller student.

The scholarly boy managed to straighten up even further, and how that was even possible Izuku had no clue, but the boy stuck out his hand friendly enough before giving an appropriately stiff introduction. "I am Iida Tenya from Somei Private Academy. And you are?" Iida asked leadingly.

This guy was _insane. _Couldn't he read death glare number seventeen? He wasn't really expecting her to—

"_Somei_ huh?" Katsumi seemed to chew on the name, finding it utterly unsatisfactory to her pallet. "So you were practically _bred_ for this right?" She grinned viciously, "we'll see how much your _pedigree _means when they start trimming the fat. I look forward to cruhmph—"

Izuku had let Kacchan have her fun long enough, but there was a time and a place. Had anyone else physically covered the girl's mouth like he'd just done, they'd most likely have lost a finger. Hell, the twitching eyebrow made it pretty obvious that even _he_ wouldn't escape entirely unscathed.

The look in her eye said to run, but he never got the chance.

"Oh? I come from watching a trusted colleague slaving away to build a dorm for our _precious _hero course applicants, and here they are lounging around like glorified sloth." A man of average stature and unintimidating presence strolled into the room, stopping beside the podium dominating the front of the room. "That's not rational at all."

He dressed as plainly as he looked, wearing only a black long-sleeve shirt and baggy trousers to match. Perhaps his most defining trait was a sturdy-looking, gunmetal grey scarf that coiled like a constrictor around his neck. He stood with a relaxed posture, not hunched over like Chi-sensei, more laid back, innocent.

_But it was a ruse._

Izuku instantly recognized the Pro-Hero Eraserhead, an underground hero that even _he'd_ struggled to find much info on. He'd only ever _seen _the man in person a single time, and it had been by pure chance, catching the tale end of the hero stopping a robbery in progress.

There wasn't much to say about the occasion as he'd disabled the villain faster than Izuku could track at the time and disappeared even faster.

As for the hero's combat skills, Izuku could only guess. He was infamous for his hit and run tactics meant to efficiently disable the threat as rapidly and with as little risk as possible. The pro's entire method apparently hinged on his incredibly niche quirk: Erasure.

But that couldn't be _all_ right? Rumors on the internet were hardly something someone to base a hero page on. Would someone really develop a reputation as some demonic underground hero if they didn't have a couple tricks up their sleeve?

"The name's Aizawa Shota, and I'll be class 1-A's homeroom teacher," the man drawled, twisting a pinky in one ear. "But more importantly, I'll be overseeing your progress throughout your time in the UA hero course. For as long… or short as that may be…"

A wave of muttering swept throughout the classroom, until one brave soul raised her hand. It was a girl with a particularly unique rose skin tone and horns curling subtly away from her forehead. The black sclera sitting behind luminescent yellow irises were perhaps even more striking, but the permanent laugh lines took away any factor of intimidation she may have had otherwise. She was _curious, _to say the least, and Izuku had to physically restrain himself from asking if her appearance _was_ her quirk, or simply a side effect of it. To get into UA it _must_ have been something impressive.

"Yes, what is it…" Aizawa trailed off, clearly expecting a name.

"Ashido Mina, Aizawa-Sensei!" she called, high and clear. "You called us hero-course applicants just a second ago… What's up with that? We already _passed_ the exams, that's why we're _here, _right?"

A ripple of hesitant agreement rumbled throughout the room.

Izuku had caught that phrasing as well but had initially written it off as a slip of the tongue. He was beginning to reconsider being so dismissive, from what little experience he'd had so far with the man, Aizawa didn't seem to be someone to use _anything_ carelessly let alone something as powerful as words.

Izuku _really_ didn't like that smile that slowly stretched over their sensei's face.

"Right… about that, put these on," he said, waving dismissively to a pile of matching navy-blue uniforms. Several students craned their necks to get a better look.

"Hero class _already_?" chimed the invisible girl.

"Woah! These are the real deal huh?!" said the red-headed boy Izuku recognized from the exam.

"Yeah, totally! It finally seems like it's real now huh?!" Another answered.

Izuku couldn't help but feel the same. Anyone who had watched the UA sports festival in the previous several _decades_ could recognize the iconic blue and white design. Every single pro hero that had ever passed through these halls had worn a variation of it at some point. But a moment later their sensei cut through the mounting excitement once more.

"Yes, yes, you'll all have a wonderful story to tell your families," came the already-familiar drawl. "You wore the _prestigious_ UA uniform for all of two hours…" A heavy silence filled the room, no one daring to move a muscle, before Aizawa started, as if remembering something that had eluded him. "Oh, that's right… Ashido-san, calling you hero _students_… Why bother when half of you will be gone by the end of the day anyway? Would that not be the height of absurdity?" His grin turned manic and a chill ran down Izuku's spine.

What?! He couldn't be serious _right_?! _Half_ the class? Talk about _absurd…_

"Meet me at the entrance to Field C in ten minutes," the man said as if he hadn't just dropped the mother of all ultimatums. Aizawa paused at the door, "Oh… and welcome to the UA hero course.

oooOoOoOooo

The word 'field' gave off the impression of an ordinary school track field. The enormous clearing they had found following Iida's directions, (he'd studied the school map ahead of time) was probably as far from ordinary as you could get. Even from the nondescript gated entrance, the sheer size of the space was imposing enough, but after they'd trailed in through the gate one by one, the true scale of UA was here before their very eyes. The sprawling fields seemed to extend for miles, far beyond what the normal human eye could see.

What did Aizawa-sensei have in mind that they needed to come _here _of all places?

"Aizawa-sensei!" Iida called with his hand ramrod straight in the air.

"Yeah, what is it?" their advisor said lazily.

The arm came down swiftly to the side of Iida's face, where he delicately adjusted his glasses. "Were you being serious when you said half of us will be leaving today?! If that is true, then the entrance exam was most misleading! We were told that succeeding in said exam would guarantee a spot in UA's most prestigious hero program were we not?!" Chops with a flattened hand accompanied his proclamations. Izuku wondered if it was a good thing that he was almost used to it by this point.

"_Shiit_, I thought you were joking about this clown, Deku…" Katsumi hissed in his ear.

"Shh, he's a nice guy, y'know," he pouted slightly. "You didn't have to tease him like that…"

A vaguely surprised look came over her features before the expression turned devious. "Why… jealous?"

He was about to answer when a flash of dark grey flickered in his peripherals. In the blink of an eye Izuku's left arm shot up to seize the writhing length of cloth centimeters from his face. The material had a curious texture, hovering somewhere between pliable and sturdy, but with an organic quality that Izuku couldn't really place.

Several jaws dropped, but whether that was due to his reaction speed or their teacher trying to bitch slap him with a scarf Izuku did not know.

"Hooh? So you _were _paying attention." Aizawa hadn't moved from his slouched position at the head of the group, but as Izuku released his hold on the man's scarf, a slight tug and it almost immediately returned to coil around his neck, deceptively inert.

Where did he get _that _kind of technology? Or perhaps he was just _that _practiced with the weapon? Either way, Izuku had just gained more information for Eraserhead's hero page in the last half hour than he had in the previous several years.

"If you're here to socialize then get out," Eraser-sensei drawled, eyes driving in to several students around the room before coming to rest on Izuku. "But if you're here to be a hero, we've got to get a better idea of what you're capable of."

"But what about the entrance ceremony?! Or the mandatory guidance sessions?!" Uraraka said in disbelief.

Aizawa paused in consideration. "Negligible."

Izuku sighed. He couldn't tell whether this guy was a super dedicated teacher or just too lazy to do his job. The fact that both possibilities looked so similar with a cursory glance was terrifying.

"Luckily, UA has a bit of a 'freestyle' education system, "Aizawa continued. "As long as the decision can be logically explained as for the betterment of future heroes, we're given carte blanche over our lessons."

"_Merveilleux!" _ chimed in a blonde boy that Izuku vaguely remembered from his own exam.

What was it with this guy and French? He was _clearly _a Japanese native judging from his accent. Guess hero work attracts all sorts…

"Right…" Aizawa said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. "You've all taken our country's standardized fitness tests, right?"

They nodded.

"Midoriya, Bakugo! Decide between yourselves who'll be giving a demonstration!"

Izuku met Kastumi's eyes and saw how they burned with excitement, though she did her best not to show it. He tilted his head towards their sensei, ignoring the flutter in his gut at the wide smile she gave in response.

She strode decisively towards Aizawa, snatching the ball he offered lazily.

"Seated toe touch, upper-body training, side to side stepping, grip strength, sprints, long distance and so on… and so forth," Aizawa drawled. "Hopefully this might offer a wider variety of simulations that the entrance exam in which you can demonstrate your abilities. Unfortunately, some of you…" he met the eyes of several students around the field. "You'll still be at a disadvantage…"

Izuku could imagine why. Rescue points aside, the fact that some of these aspiring heroes were able to score passing numbers in such a one-dimensional exam was incredible. He doubted any of them had undergone the same intense training that he had himself, which made the fact even more impressive. How the hell did the _invisible_ girl take out so many robots? He didn't know her name to match to any of the top ten names for sure, but _still._

"I knew the hero course was tough, but doesn't this seem a bit unfair?" a boy with electric blonde hair laughed uncertainly.

"Unfair?" Aizawa said suddenly, his dark, bloodshot eyes zeroing in on the boy. "Natural disasters, highway pileups, rampaging villains… I'd argue the world is full of unfairness. But overcoming those impossible odds is what makes us heroes. If you can't figure out a way to succeed _here,_ then how will our citizens ever be able to put their lives in your hands?"

Ah… so this was why UA was the best…

"Bakugo then… How far could you throw in High school?"

"A hundred n' three meters."

A rumble of mutterings broke out from the class, and even Aizawa looked a bit surprised.

"Seriously?"

Dude! That's got to be national record or something right?" Shouted the redhead from just behind Izuku's right shoulder.

"It's the girls record, yeah," she spat sulkily, shooting a glare Izuku's way. A faint bit of heat came to his neck, but he just shrugged at her apologetically.

Which of course just pissed her off even more.

"Oi, Eraser-sensei, if I'm understanding you, you're saying we can use our quirks now, right?"

He eyed her suspiciously. "That's right, though your middle-school score seems to suggest that you might have already been doing so… or am I wrong?"

A sinister grin stretched across her features, eyes shadowed by her bangs, "how heat resistant _is_ this thing?"

Aizawa's eyes narrowed at the girl, "We get all our tech from Endeavor's support agency, it's hellflame ensured…"

A glint entered her eyes, as she stepped into the dirt circle that had been cleared for the first event.

Izuku sighed, did Aizawa _really_ have to taunt her like that?

"Hey, dude!" an elbow nudged him gently.

Izuku turned to find the redhead from before practically hopping in place with a sparkle in his eye. "What's the deal with you and Bakugo-chan? She's totally hardcore!"

An uncomfortable feeling wedged its way into his gut. Of course, people had always noticed how amazing Kacchan was, but Izuku could tell this situation was a bit different. The admiration in the friendly redhead's eyes was _too_ familiar.

"We've known each other our whole lives," he bit out, shrugging. "She's my best friend."

Uraraka choked out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh from his left, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.

A high-pitched whine filled the air, and a girl two rows down clamped her hands over her ears, distress painted plainly over her features. Izuku made the connection a moment later when he noticed what looked like auxiliary cables dangling from her ears. Izuku turned to let Kacchan know they had an audio-based quirk among them. It was probably something they should have checked ahead of time, but even Aizawa, who should _know_ all of their quirks already, had overlooked it.

But a moment later, the young woman next to the girl in pain pulled a pair of noise cancelling headphones… out of her bra?

Huh.

So that was a thing. How the _hell_ was Izuku supposed to ask about _that _quirk?

A roaring yellow flame originating from Katsumi's fist sprung into existence while the whine intensified. She gracefully stretched her arm back, engaging the muscles in her core and back to compensate for the kickback Izuku knew was coming.

Quicksteel writhed in agitation as he prepared to erect a dome in front of his classmates. Kacchan wouldn't hurt anyone, he was sure of that, but dust in the mouth was always unpleasant.

"_Die!"_

A shield flicked into being for a moment, unseen by his classmates who had flinched away at the devastating flash of light and sound. He merely blocked the initial cloud of dust that was kicked up before folding the metal back into itself, curious to see how far she'd launched the thing. He had an idea of Katsumi's ability, but they'd never tested it in _this _particular way.

Several deafening cracks echoed across the grounds following Kacchan's throw, though it was really more of a cannon than a pitch by this point.

So, she'd managed to break the sound barrier huh? He peered into the sky trying to see any trace of the ball, but the only thing that marred clear blue was the light trail of smoke left in its wake.

Aizawa turned a digital display towards the class with a bored look, and Izuku felt a grin tug at his lips.

_2.231 km_

"Establish your limits first, so you can overcome them on the way to the top," he said.

Izuku whistled appreciatively, breaking the silence and leading the class to follow up. Praise for Katsumi intermingled with excitement at the prospect of giving it a try for themselves. But once again…

"So quick to forget the position you're in," Aizawa said with a hint of irritation coloring his tone. The students celebrating the most quieted instantly. "The bottom ten scores will be expelled. Immediately."

Aizawa paused waiting for any objections, but apparently had taken their stunned silence as acceptance.

Izuku disagreed. He may have been misinterpreting, but that shorter boy with oddly grape-like hair was trembling, and he was pretty sure it wasn't from excitement.

Oh well… if that's what it took to be the top hero school… then he'd just have to top the charts.

"We'll start with the fifty-meter dash. Aoyama, Ashido, you're up."

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku was not above pulling out a notebook in the middle of field C. How many other opportunities would he have to see such elite quirks used in such a structured manner? He'd taken notes on heroes and villains while they did battle live, so recording the quirks of his classmates certainly wasn't much of a stretch. It simply wasn't a chance he was willing to waste.

He scribbled madly in an attempt to finish up the barebones details of Mashirao Ojiro's quirk before the next pair took to the tracks. The first six students certainly hadn't disappointed when it came to using their quirks in a race.

Aoyama and Ashido had finished within half a second of each other, but it was the blonde boy that had a particular inventive way of using his quirk in an event that normally wouldn't suit it. If only he could offset the side effect of stomach pain from overuse, Navel Lazer had the potentially to be a formidable weapon. It was a shame that he seemed to only be able to project his beam in a single direction, considering its ability to generate thrust… he might benefit from looking into UA's support gear.

Ashido seemed to be able to secrete some kind of liquid from her body, using it to slide along the track rather than sprint normally. She'd helpfully proclaimed once she returned to the group that the substance was acid, but that was just so _vague_…

Judging from her appearance, it obviously wasn't the _only _aspect of her quirk which had to be a mutant type. Could she alter the pH of the material? The viscosity?

Her body obviously offered _some_ resistance to the corrosive qualities but how far did that go? He simply didn't have the time to ask the important questions just yet, but hopefully he'd get a chance later.

Iida was like a fish in water with this event, coming in at a blazing 2.81 seconds, but his partner Asui Tsuyu, wasn't too far behind.

She seemed to have several froglike qualities, many of which aided her respectable time of an even five seconds. She even spoke with a distinct croak, but those wide, dark eyes and straightforward nature made the girl adorable in her own way.

Uraraka had lightened her clothes to shave as many milliseconds off her time as she could.

Why she hadn't used her quirk on herself, Izuku did not know, but Uraraka probably knew the logistics of being unaffected by gravity better than he. Saving her stamina for the long jump and the high jump may just have been the better choice in the long run. She still came in not too far behind her partner, Ojiro Mashirao, who used his muscular tail to propel him to the finish line.

They clocked in at 6.53 seconds and 5.91 seconds respectively.

Those scores began to seem more promising once the next several pairs had gone. Either they didn't have quirks that suited speed-based events like the duo of Kirishima Eijiro and Kaminari Denki, or in the case of the pair that followed, directly hindered them. Koda Koji and Sato Rikido were both built like brick walls, but while the former seemed to be quietly reserved, the latter had a personality to match his appearance. They'd probably do better in the strength events.

"Deku," Kacchan said, nudging him lightly.

He picked his eyes off the pages of his notebook and met her eyes curiously. She remained silent, but nodded towards the track.

The first thing he noticed was the floating PE uniform doing stretches at the starting line. It was indeed a curious sight, but probably not what Katsumi had been alluding to.

Izuku peered at the young man beside the floating uniform. Ah… so _that's_ what she meant.

It was the young man standing _next _to Hagakure that had drawn the blonde's attention.

The boy had refined, aristocratic features, which juxtaposed strikingly with the angry red scar that stretched over his left eye. His hair was as heterochromatic as his eyes, splitting evenly down his forehead, and falling in straight white and red locks over his face.

Izuku had never pried into pro heroes' home lives out of respect for their privacy. And even if he did have any inclination to, a Pro's personal information was often hidden in ways that were far beyond his ability to overcome. But Izuku had still instantly recognized the young man before him.

Endeavor had never hidden Todoroki Shouto from the public eye after all.

Izuku frowned, feeling quicksteel respond to a sudden drop in temperature. Jagged shards of crystal-blue ice sprouted around the boy's legs as the three-count began.

Interesting, Izuku would have thought Todoroki's inherited hellflame would have boosted speed more efficiently than cryokinesis. But as Todoroki proceeded to glide over the finish line in 4.52 seconds, a time that put him second only to Iida, Izuku might have had to reconsider.

And then suddenly, it was his turn.

"Midoriya, Bakugo, you're up," Aizawa drawled.

The redhead from before, who he now knew was named Kirishima snapped his head over to Izuku. "Wait… Midoriya? _You're_ the one who tied her for first?!" His eyes were comically wide, which when paired with his shark-like teeth, gave him a particularly comical look.

Kacchan scoffed by his side. "On a technicality!"

He grinned at the spiky-haired boy, "you might want to avoid mentioning the exam around her."

"Like hell, nerd, we can settle this shit right here, right now. There're no bonus points in a fuckin race." She stomped off towards the starting line in a huff.

"She's pissed about getting _first_?" Kirishima said in disbelief.

"Not really," Izuku said, smiling fondly after the girl. "It's just the principle of the matter."

He trailed after her, propping his hands behind his head. How he ended up paired with Kacchan he had no idea, their family names weren't even _close_ to each to each other.

Izuku left his quicksteel back with the group of students, grinning lightly as he caught several of them circling the floating sphere curiously. He _could_ use it of course, but at a shorter distance event like the fifty-meter dash, his skyboard's slow acceleration would probably hinder him more than help. Besides… _flying_ the running event? Something about that just didn't sit right with him. Izuku was as proud of his body's power as he was of his quirk, if not more so. What was the point if he didn't use it? Katsumi having no complaint at his leaving quicksteel behind only reinforced his decision.

He stretched out his hamstrings eyeing Kacchan at his side as she slipped out of her black and orange trainers. She hopped from foot to foot, small pops and puffs of dust kicked up by the short bursts of her quirk. It seemed she was taking this as seriously as he was.

_Good._

Izuku let out a hissed breath through barely parted lips, crouching down into a sprinter's stance. Kacchan did the same beside him, her fingertips sparking in the dust.

The mechanical beep signaling the start of their block cut through the air, followed a millisecond later by the first crack of Kacchan's quirk.

Izuku sprung forward, every muscle and ligament in his body coiling like a spring before unleashing in an unrestrained show of power.

He parted the air like a blade, covering ground with a lithe, refined grace.

But where his speed was formidable, it still wasn't quite enough to overcome Kacchan's explosion-aided acceleration. She led him by maybe a meter or so, blasting her way ahead with powerful, loping strides, taking one for every three of his own.

And just like that, it was over.

_3.57 seconds, 3.79 seconds, _the automated camera announced.

Izuku didn't even need to look know the grin she was giving him. "Laugh it up, Kacchan, there's plenty more events."

"Don't get your hopes up, Deku, you sure you can keep up?" She stalked back to the group with a vicious smile.

Izuku could have sworn she put a little extra sway in her hips there. At least it served to eliminate the slight irritation he felt when Kirishima began singing Katsumi's praises.

He knew she was amazing _first_ dammit…

"Yooo! Midoriya, that was totally _manly_ dude!"

Alright, maybe Kirishima wasn't _that_ bad.

oooOoOoOooo

The next test was grip strength, and as he'd guessed, Sato had secured a much more impressive ranking than he had in the fifty-meter dash.

There was something to be said about a simple strength enhancer quirk. The dude was already massive, so depending on how the multiplier worked, he had the potential to rival death-arms given some time.

The hulking young man held the top score with an impressive 445 kg, at least until Izuku managed to edge him out with a 460 kg. He still hadn't used his quirk but was honestly content with how things were playing out. Going all out with his natural strength would provide a much better baseline than mindlessly cruising through the events on the back of his quicksteel-enhanced strength.

Even when Shoji Mezo toppled him from the top spot with his 620 kgs, Izuku couldn't bring himself to regret his decision. He was too busy quizzing the boy about his downright fascinating ability to clone any part of his body on any of his six limbs. His quirk, Dupli-arms was certainly aptly named.

Shoji didn't seem too surprised, nor too offended, when Izuku brought up the topic of stem cell research in relation to the regenerative aspect of his quirk. Apparently, he'd already given countless DNA samples over his lifetime, which only made Izuku's opinion of the boy shoot up.

He couldn't help but let out a laugh as Kacchan tossed her grip scale to the ground with a scowl. She'd scored a 240 kg, a score that was indeed close to record-breaking had this been a normal institution. Even competing with the strongest quirks of their age group it was still in the top five, not that she cared for anything other than beating him out.

Oh well… she'd just have to deal with it, even after adopting his absurd training regime, Izuku had always had an advantage when it came to straight up strength. In a contest where Kacchan couldn't really use her quirk, the win was his for the taking.

"Yeah, I bet you put that grip strength to real good use, _nerd!"_

D-did she just…

"K-Kacchan! You can't _say _that!" he called back, laughing as the girl realized what she'd yelled across the field, flushing hotly.

"Sh-shuddup!"

"You're so freaking _cute_ Bakugo-chan!"

"Fuck _off, _Round face!"

They were all silenced handily a moment later when Yaoyorozu Momo, a black-haired beauty that stood nearly as tall as Izuku did himself, snatched the top score. She'd somehow pulled a miniature hydraulic press out of her stomach and nearly crushed the scale into scrap metal.

Izuku had pointedly ignored the flashes of pale flesh as the girl rebuttoned her top, a courtesy that unfortunately wasn't granted by all. The grape-haired boy from earlier was particularly enthusiastic with his lecherous commentary, some of which really didn't sit well with Izuku.

He was an admirer of the female form as much as the next guy, though the subject of his fantasies probably didn't vary as much as some. But this guy… Mineta, if he remembered correctly, was just downright disrespectful. Hopefully he was acting out with all the stress of the first day, but Izuku had a bad feeling this wasn't the case. Might be best to keep him away from Katsumi just to be safe…

Yaoyorozu's score remained unchallenged to the very end, a fact that Ashido was particularly happy about.

"Woohoo! Way to take one home for the girls, Yaomomo!" Mina called, flashing a peace sign towards the taller girl.

"Y-Yaomomo?"

"You don't mind, do you?" the rose-skinned girl said frowning lightly. "I just thought since we're hopefully gonna be here for a while…"

"N-no its fine! I don't mind," she said quietly, grinning lightly as the exuberant girl swung an arm over her shoulder.

It was so strange that such a seemingly put-together young woman would seem so out of place in a social setting. But Izuku knew quite well how hard it was to shake certain habits. Hell, he still had to consciously avoid thinking out loud at times.

"Settle down, this isn't a daycare," Aizawa said, cutting through the chatter. "Standing long jump is next. You'll go one by one this time, Midoriya…" the man's dark gaze settled on Izuku. "You're up first."

He strode up to the white line indicating where they should start their jump from, leaving his quicksteel floating at Kacchan's side.

Having been adequately warmed up, Izuku immediately crouched into an appropriate stance to jump from. Athletes in the past would probably spend years perfecting the form to maximize the distance they could cover, but nowadays, Olympic sports were relegated to simple school events or used to maintain national standards as was the case with his previous school. Quirked competitions like the UA sports festival now dominated the world of competitive sports, often much flashier than the events of the past.

Izuku loved the analytics involved with quirk matchups more than most, but even he could appreciate the romanticized tales of competitions where every competitor started on a completely even playing field, relying on nothing but their bodies to produce results.

Hopefully he'd do them proud.

Izuku's legs coiled like a spring, preparing to leap over the area cleared for the long jump, but he never got the chance…

The first sensation he noticed with the overwhelming _absence_ of one of his basic senses. Something was so very _wrong._

Something was _missing_. Why was everything so… dull?

What was happening to him?!

He distantly heard a thundering crash followed by shouts of alarm from his classmates. But it was all an afterthought, paling in comparison to this gaping _hole_ of a sensation that flooded his being.

And now he was flying through the air…

A moment later Izuku registered the vaguely familiar feeling of cloth coiled around his body and neck. It wasn't enough to cut off his air supply, but he certainly struggled to move even an inch. It was as he gazed into the bloodshot onyx eyes of his sensei that the rapid progression of events finally made sense to the young man.

_For fucks sake, _if _that's_ what having your quirk erased felt like then it was no wonder the pro had such a successful track record. Or perhaps it was all the tactile sensory input Izuku gained from his quirk that made its sudden absence so jarring? Hopefully it wouldn't be like that every time. Either way, Izuku was thoroughly cocooned.

"Funny, Midoriya, I didn't peg you as someone who would look down on your classmates, but here you are putting up these half-ass scores like you're too good to even _try."_

Izuku's eyebrow twitched slightly. What the hell kind of assumption was that? Kinda arrogant to assume that was the case without even _asking_ wasn't it? He was about to say so when a more immediate thought came to his head.

"E-eraser-sensei," he choked out through the bindings. "D-dodge!"

The pro's eyes widened immediately, the scarf unraveling as he leaped out of the way of an explosion that erupted between the two of them. Izuku immediately felt the weight of his quirk return to him as Aizawa's vision was obscured by the blast.

He quickly latched quicksteel restraints of his own onto Katsumi who looked to ready to attempt a second attack. "Chill, Kacchan," he said trying to regain his own breath. He laid a calming hand on the top of her head, which seemed to bring her back under wraps.

"Attacking students out of nowhere, doesn't seem very heroic does it?" she spat, glaring across the short distance to where their sensei stood in a relaxed manner.

"A bit hypocritical there, but It's fine, I'm sure he had his reasons?" Izuku said, giving a questioning glance to the man.

"Midoriya, Bakugo! What is the meaning of this?" Iida questioned stiffly.

The class shifted uncertainly, and Izuku certainly didn't blame them. He was sure this hadn't been what they expected for their first day.

"If you think you can simply coast through my class without effort then—"

"You're wrong," Izuku said lightly, inwardly wincing as he interrupted his sensei. But this was important, he couldn't let a misunderstanding like this perpetuate. Izuku had the utmost respect for his classmates, at least most of them, and would never intentionally insult them.

"My quirk has many limitations," Izuku began, relaxing his hold on his friend. "But raw strength is probably one I have to worry about the least." Izuku paused, relishing the feeling of his quirk now that its absence was so fresh in his mind.

"'_Establish your limits so you can overcome them on the way to the top', _that's what you said, right?" Izuku called over to Aizawa, who was looking less upset and more thoughtful by the second. "So sure, I could bulldoze my way through the grip strength tests, and if it makes you feel any better, you can just give me the top score for the long and high jump right now," Izuku couldn't help but add with a cheeky smile. "But this way, _my_ way, I have something I can work towards, something I can _improve_ on." He met Aizawa's gaze resolutely, "I've worked my whole life to be here, the last thing I'd do is half-ass it."

No one said a word for a moment as they stared eye to eye, before Aizawa broke the tension scratching at his neck. "Hmm, understood. Your reasoning is sound." Izuku let out the gust of air he had been holding. "However… the young men and women behind you could be your comrades in arms one day, it would be prudent for them to be aware of your capabilities. Don't wait too long…"

That was… a good point. Maybe he could cut lose on the last few tests? His lips twitched in anticipation.

"Understood, Aizawa-sensei!" He nudged Kacchan implicatively.

"Quit it, Deku! I ain't fuckin apologizing," she scowled.

"Back in line, problem child. Midoriya, take your turn, I don't have all day."

"The fuck are you callin problem child, Eraser!?"

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Ok, so perhaps she'd overreacted just a _tiny _bit. But how the hell was _she _supposed to know their sensei wasn't _actually_ choking out her best friend? It had certainly _looked _like it from where _she_ was standing. Hell _no_ she wasn't gonna apologize to that shithead.

The long jump started again, and Katsumi returned to the crowd of extras who were actually putting up better numbers than she'd expected from extras. They were all peering curiously at the crater the nerd's quirk had left in the ground, not that she'd been much better. Katsumi had been as alarmed as any of them when the orb that normally floated so expressively through the air, had dropped like an anvil.

It had been the first indication that something was wrong. Katsumi knew Deku's quicksteel was dense, but even _she_ hadn't expected the damage done to the field when it fell. No _wonder _the hits backed up by his quirk always packed such a punch.

But most of the extras were just enamored with the crater itself. Only some, like Icy-hot and that creation girl with the amazing rack, seemed to understand the implications of the damage it' dealt.

Good, maybe they'd show some fuckin respect, god knows Izuku deserved it.

"Midoriya-kun! I must admit I assumed you felt yourself above such a test, but alas, I have misjudged your character once again!"

Oh god, not this guy again…

She moved to respond with a scathing comment, but Deku cut her off like she was gonna _insult_ the guy or something…

"Sorry for the misunderstanding," Izuku said instead with an open smile. He quickly fell into conversation she couldn't care less about, but she stuck around, feeling an inexplicable need to hover. What the hell was _that _about?

"Hey Midoriya! What was Aizawa sensei saying about you half-assing the events?!" The boy with that awful red hair said excitedly. "That can't be right, right? You've been crushing every event so far!"

Izuku looked to be about to give the same answer he gave their shitty teacher, but she had a better idea.

"Deku…" she said quietly, but it was enough to get his attention as she knew it would be. He turned to her immediately. "Just _show_ them," she said, meeting his eyes.

He shrugged a moment later, turning to the students surround him, "I wasn't holding back at all," he said seriously. "But that's not all I'm capable of either."

"Yeah, no shit dude, you haven't even used your quirk yet have you?" That question came from the purple-haired girl with headphones in her ears, cutting into the conversation.

"Quiet, Lobes! When we do the softball throw, Deku'll give you a showstopper," Katsumi said grinning up at the nerd.

"Yeah, I guess I will," he said, sighing in exasperation.

She always wondered if he'd ever tire of catering to her whims… But after nearly a decade he'd yet to complain...

oooOoOoOooo

Katsumi actually topped the charts in most of the ordinary events like the sitting toe touch, and even in the continuous side step event only lost out to the idiot with the grapes for hair.

The latter didn't bother her too much, she'd trade losing a shitty event like that for _not _being two feet tall any day of the fucking week.

But at last they came to the only event anyone actually cared about: the softball throw.

She'd been waived from having to throw a second time, which gave her ample opportunity to observe the frontrunners of their class.

Katsumi would never admit it, but some of them had skills. None that came close to her level of course, but still, they weren't bad. Katsumi tried not to grind her teeth _too_ hard when round face threw an infinity, but she was pretty sure she'd failed in that regard.

It was the Yaoyorozo girl's turn up next, so Katsumi kept up a hawk like stare. She'd been one of the few Katsumi'd been keeping an eye on. For good reason too, as the girl had scored top three in nearly every event with her ability to pull seemingly _anything_ out of her body.

And what a body it was… Katsumi scowled. Boobs _and_ a powerful quirk? And people said _she_ hit the genetic lottery.

At this point Katsumi wasn't even surprised when the girl pulled a canon out of her jacket, firing the softball without issue, and coming alarmingly close to her own score. But fortunately, aside from Round face's infinity, Katsumi still held the top spot in the softball throw.

Until finally, it was Izuku's turn.

He strolled into the circle they'd all been throwing from while his quirk, following obediently behind his right shoulder for the first time that day, glinted in the midafternoon sunlight.

Katsumi sighed as Izuku shucked off his PE jacket, the sleeveless undershirt doing nothing to hide her friend's shredded musculature. But when quicksteel start _oozing_ over the contours of his arms and upper torso, even the other girls in their class started to take notice.

"Holy shit… Midoriya really takes _abs of steel_ to a whole new level huh?"

"Do you see those _arms? _I'd let him _save _me any day."

Sparks danced at Katsumi's fingertips with every new comment. She was torn between enjoying the show herself or pounding Pinky and Invisalign into dust. Her eyebrows twitched as the girls devolved into obnoxious giggles, some of the others chiming in as well.

"_Midoriyaaa!" _ the grape-haired harassment case waiting to happen growled in sullen rage. "I'm so freaking jealous! Not even two hours into the first day and he's already hogging all the girls to himself!"

Katsumi worried for her sanity when she agreed with _this_ perv of all people, but the nerd really _was_ getting too much attention for her tastes. She let off a weak explosion, enough to draw the eye of the spectators but not strong enough to distract Izuku himself.

Izuku was distracting enough for her though. He really was beautiful when he used his quirk like this. His lithe build alone was attractive to the girl, add in reflective metallic sheen…

_Fuck._

She'd almost missed his throw…

The tips of Izuku's fingers _writhed_ with power, latching on to the innocuous ball with an unbreakable grip. There was something unsettling about watching a metal move in such an organic fashion. His arm cocked back, and a subtle hum filled the air.

Katsumi knew of the power contained in those metallic limbs first-hand. She had faith that they'd be the backbone of their society one day.

Oh, she'd still be number one. But Deku would be the pillar that kept them all from crumbling.

His arm seemed to twitch, moving faster than her eye could track, and the next thing Katsumi knew, she was hunched over in an attempt to not be flattened by the shockwave that followed.

"What the hell is that quirrrrk!? It's totally maaaanly!" Katsumi managed to hear over the rushing wind.

Well… he wasn't wrong. She blinked through the clouds of dust, picking out Deku standing like a Greek fucking god in a crater of his own making. He heaved deep, lungfuls of air, but still had that annoyingly charismatic grin plastered across his stupid adorable face.

"Was that enough of a showstopper, Kacchan?"

Oh god she was fucking blushing. "Shut up nerd, you still got second place!"

Aizawa held up the digital tracker, confirming her statement to be true.

**_6.431 km_**

"Finished at last…" Aizawa sighed, giving no indication of the spectacle that had just occurred. "Here are the rankings," he said dismissively. He tapped on his screen and a holographic display appeared with all their names and average ranking.

Katsumi immediately picked out her own towards the top of the list but frowned at the number two next to her name. She'd beaten Deku in third, but then who was—"

"Yaomomo! Takin it home for the girls!" Pinky's shriek cut through the air.

Fan-fucking-tastic, as if she didn't have enough to deal with.

She barely spared a glace for grapehead who sat wailing on the ground pitifully. Though looking around his wasn't the only negative reaction to the results. Right… Eraser _did _say he was expelling the bottom half, but such a punishment simply wasn't relevant to someone like her.

As if she'd ever score in the _bottom_ half of the class. Pfft!

"Ah… right, that expulsion thing… I made it up! Pack up and go back to class, your syllabus for the semester will be on your desks."

And with that statement hanging in the air, their sensei strolled away without a care in the world leaving half of his class emotionally scarred, and the other half horribly confused.

"Well of course it was a lie, didn't take much to figure that out…" the creation girl said a bit too snobbishly for her taste.

"Well, you _could_ be right," Deku said. "But considering the average size of UA's graduating class compared to the first years…" He trailed off, letting the girl make the connection herself.

"B-but that would mean… he lied twice… no wait, only once…"

"Something tells me Aizawa won't have to many hang-ups on deceiving his students to get the best out of us," he said.

Katsumi wished she'd been able to take a picture of the look of shock that overcame princess's perfect fucking face when she realized she didn't have all the answers.

It was glorious.

"Oi, Deku, move outta the way, let me get another shot at the ball throw, you _know _I got screwed having to go first!" Katsumi called, stomping over to her friend.

"Kacchan, you heard Aizawa, you're gonna make us late."

"I don't give a fuck about that shitty eraser lemme get another throw!"

"Kacchan…"

Unknown to the arguing duo, Iida sidled up to Uraraka in his typical robotic fashion. "I cannot tell if those two are taking this seriously or not!" Iida said, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"I think they are more than anyone, Iida-kun" Uraraka said, smiling after the pair.

Another explosion rocked the earth a moment later.

"At least I _think_ they are…"


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: A bit late on the update here, but this chapter took a really long time to edit. No matter how much I fiddled with them, some of the scenes just weren't coming out right. This is the best I could come up with. There's a longer AN at the end, discussing some of my decisions for this chapter, but I'll let you form your own opinions before I give you mine.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 10**

Love is Like Battle training

oooOo Izuku oOooo

It wasn't a very well-advertised fact that one didn't _actually_ need to have attended a hero University to be licensed as a pro.

Izuku's pen scratched over the well-worn pages of Hero Analysis for the Future, volume seven. When _had_ he started this particular book? Sixth… maybe seventh grade?

It was long enough ago that combing through it now he was reminded of little tidbits of information he'd forgotten over the years. Not to mention his sense of humor as a child was… eccentric, to say the least.

Needless to say, it had been a while since he'd read _this _specific volume, but considering who he'd just met a few hours previously, it was a given that he'd revisit this particular entry.

Izuku's pen tapped thoughtfully against the page.

A provisionary license could only be obtained through a reputable enough Hero institution, but an official hero license could be obtained by any working professional through a recommendation of an already-licensed hero.

That wasn't to say that any average joe could become a hero without any effort. They'd still have to pass an exam judged by a panel of officials like anyone else. Besides… why would a Pro ever risk their own reputation for someone who hadn't even put in the time and effort to achieve greatness? There was a reason it wasn't very well known, in fact, Izuku could count on one hand the number of active pros that _hadn't_ come from a school like UA.

Why was this at all relevant?

Well, ironically one of them taught here.

Izuku peered down at the name titling the entry.

Ishiyama Ken, better known by his hero name: Cementoss, had actually graduated from one of Tokyo's most prestigious Universities with a master's degree in architecture. Though he'd unofficially studied several other disciplines that complemented his ability to erect cement structures in an instant. Ken spent nearly half a decade in the business traveling around the world using his quirk to restore homes to those suffering from natural disasters and catastrophic villain attacks alike.

He only shifted his focus to hero work after being recommended personally by All Might himself. The symbol of peace had somehow caught wind of Ishiyama's relief efforts and spent weeks convincing the man to become a hero.

A few years later and Cementoss cracked his way into the top 100 with a passionate and unyieldingly loyal fanbase. One that was well-deserved in Izuku's opinion.

Even with Ishiyama shifting his focus to teaching in the most recent years, he still tried to devote a few months of the year to his original passion.

But _knowing_ about Cementoss' skill was one thing… seeing the results for his own eyes though?

This _felt _like Izuku's own bed... He glanced to the walls.

Yep, those were _his _hero photos, and he'd recognize the diagrams of his own creation anywhere. They were even arranged in the same way he was used to… The same wooden computer desk sat flush with the wall to the left of his bed, exactly where it was located back home.

And yet… this building hadn't even _existed_ this morning.

Izuku knew that for a fact. He'd rolled by the clearing on the way to class himself and there was no way he would have missed the massive building that was the UA dorms for the hero course.

Considering how they'd been instructed to drop off all their belongings the previous morning, Cementoss must have created the building _around_ all their furnishings! There was no other way they could have finished in a single day. Izuku didn't even want to _think _of the logistics involved with creating a building with fully working plumbing and electricity already installed.

He was still trying to wrap his head around how fine-tuned the man's control must be to have that level of precision with his quirk.

It was certainly a level to strive towards.

Izuku flung volume seven across the room without a look. The book landed with unerring accuracy on his desk.

Yep, exactly the same spot.

Izuku dipped a hand into the river of quicksteel suspended above his bed, relaxing as the cool material parted between his fingers. He willed it to flow in curving spirals through the air, a never-ending loop with neither beginning nor end.

Izuku had never realized just how much sensory feedback his quirk really gave him until it had been forcefully ripped away. Having a telekinetic connection to the metal, every subtle vibration, even a slight change in temperature was noticeable.

He'd of course recognized some of these things before, he would have had to be blind to miss some of them. But by this point in his life, his quirk really was a part of him and Izuku consequently took certain aspects of it for granted.

But it was a mistake he doubted he'd ever repeat. Not with such a jarringly empty sensation so fresh in his mind. There was just something so inherently _wrong_ about having it taken away. Izuku imagined it would be like a normal person waking up without an arm.

He sighed heavily. Maybe holding back in Aizawa's test had been more trouble than it was worth? God, he could just _imagine_ the shit-eating grin Kacchan'd give him if she ever heard _that_ thought.

Izuku stood by his reasoning, but Aizawa was right about one thing. His classmates _needed_ to know what he was capable of.

A solid knock at his door cut through his musings.

In a rare show of laziness, Izuku stretched a thin tendril of quicksteel to open the door rather than get up from the bed himself.

He knew who it probably was anyway…

"Doesn't even get off his ass to greet me," Katsumi drawled haughtily, strolled into his room.

He leveled a deadpan stare at the girl, doing his best to ignore the miles of leg exposed by her orange cotton shorts. "You've tried to open your door with _your _quirk before, Kacchan. How's that glass house treating ya?"

She stuck her tongue out playfully before unceremoniously flopping down beside him. She heaved a heavy gust of air, as if letting the stress of the day fade away.

The silence they shared wasn't uncomfortable by this point in their friendship. Izuku knew despite her normally caustic nature Katsumi didn't speak without purpose. If she had something on her mind, she'd speak up about it.

But there were _other _factors to consider… Izuku would be lying if he said having her lithe body in bed with him didn't have his mind racing in a _completely _different direction.

He could _just_ feel the heat of her body radiating through the sheets. Izuku turned his head, searching out those particularly captivating crimson eyes, only to meet closed eyelids.

What was going on in that unpredictable mind of hers? "What do you think of our new classmates, Kacchan?"

The question had heavy implications. They'd both had their differences of _some_ kind with most of the kids in their previous schools. He was practically the school whipping boy until he'd gotten a handle on how to deal with bullies. And Kacchan was either blindly praised or challenged for prestige for most of her upper grade years. It had left them both isolated, albeit in completely different ways.

Izuku grinned to himself, it had to be fate that they ended up lying side by side all these years later.

With a couple hiccups along the way of course.

He swirled his fingers through the streams of quicksteel, expanding them into a latticework of interconnecting strands reaching to the edges of his room, never ceasing their gentle flow. It really served no actual purpose besides possibly improving his control but more than anything else, he'd liken it to a nervous tick.

Despite being completely inanimate, quicksteel always gave off a sense of liveliness, at least in his opinion. Perhaps it was just that he was so emotively connected with the material that he felt this way, but seeing it now, flowing around the room in a constant state of motion…

It only made him more certain.

"They're a pain…"

He flinched slightly, having been so absorbed by his quirk. But as Katsumi's hand joined his own in trailing through the cool metal threads, he realized belated that she was answering his own question.

"Oh?" Izuku said curiously. That was actually a fairly decent review considering the girl's normal opinion of those she considered below her.

She fixed him with narrowed eyes, quirking her lips to one side. "The fuck you mean, '_Oh'_?"

"Nothing…" he smiled. "Just better than 'pebbles on the side on your road to greatness,' or 'extras,' or—"

"Allright! I fuckin get it already!" In a flash of moment, Izuku found his arms pinned to his sides, Kacchan's hand silencing any words of protest that may have left his mouth.

Not that he'd ever protest the way her strong legs straddled his chest as she loomed over him.

"Don't think I've forgotten about earlier, nerd," she murmured, eyes glinting dangerously. He knew she'd meant it to be menacing but _god_ she was beautiful. If Katsumi wanted to punish him, then she was certainly going about it the wrong way… Izuku was surprised she couldn't _hear_ the way his heart thundered in his chest. His quirk indicated no rapid change in temperature but Izuku would _swear_ the room had just gotten ten degrees hotter.

He wasn't sure what had possessed his body in that moment. It may have been merely a whim, or perhaps his steely control over his attraction for his best friend slipped for a moment, but with a twitch of speed Izuku had reversed their positions, leaving Katsumi flat on her back.

The light squeak she'd let out at the sudden movement had been a treat in itself. But Izuku wished he could preserve the utterly unguarded look of shock that appeared on Kacchan's face in that moment. His own arms caged her torso, leaving just enough room for her to squirm comfortably, not that she tried to, stunned as she was.

Katsumi peered up at him, ash blonde hair flattened around her head in a halo with disbelief written so plainly in her eyes. But along side that emotion were others; pride being heavily featured, but alongside it was also an honest fondness and even… desire? There was nothing, however that said she didn't welcome the action itself.

He wanted to kiss her…

It obviously hadn't been the first time he'd had the urge, or the hundredth, but in that moment, with his best friend and her lethal weapon of a body so absolutely _vulnerable_ before him. How could she expect him to hide his affections through all of that?

He was only a man…

So for once in his life, Izuku ignored the possibility of ruining his one true friendship, ignored the threat of being rejected by the only girl he'd ever loved, and finally embraced the undeniable fact that he couldn't live with the uncertainty anymore.

So he kissed her.

…

For a moment, Izuku feared her shock had left her unresponsive, and the kiss may have been even more one-sided than he'd feared. But after a moment that dragged on like nothing before, Katsumi slowly responded, her lips joining his own in a gentle dance.

How something so soft could spew such profanity at times Izuku didn't know nor care. But as he _finally _claimed the lips of his best friend and crush after so many years, his heart soared in triumph.

It was clumsy. Neither had any sort of experience with the opposite sex and figuring out through trial and error the ideal angle to meet each other was undeniably awkward at first.

But it was undeniably wonderful for Izuku and judging from the appreciative little gasps Katsumi let out, she probably didn't have many complaints either.

They'd spent nearly their entire lives together, a little embarrassment between the two was nothing new. And as Katsumi lightly parted her lips with a gasp a moment later, they found that a little embarrassment could make things _a lot_ more interesting as well.

Izuku slipped his tongue past her lips, probing tentatively around her mouth before teasing at her own a moment later.

He ghosted his fingers up the exposed skin of her leg, creeping closer the soft fabric of her sleep shorts.

She shivered delightfully against his body.

Katsumi deepened the kiss, fisting a hand in his hair as she seemingly grew more and more confident.

It wasn't surprising, really. She was always a quick study, especially with something so instinctual.

Izuku pulled away slightly, peppering kisses down her jaw, then her neck… He nuzzled at her affectionately, biting lightly at her collarbone.

She _squirmed_ at the sensation, seeming to enjoy the teasing gesture, but a moment later, her eyes flew wide open and she scrambled away, practically launching off the bed.

It too a moment for his mind to catch up by Kacchan's sudden departure. Had he done something wrong? Had he read too much into her response? He _thought_ she was as into it as he was… but maybe he'd been mistaken.

His heart sank at the thought.

Katsumi shot up, lips still enticingly swollen from their earlier embrace, but the haze of lust that had clouded Izuku's mind was overshadowed by the concern that had wedged its way into his gut.

Katsumi's eyes darted around the room like a caged animal looking everywhere but at his own.

"I… uh… I've gotta get to bed… we've got—uh…_shit_… class tomorrow."

"Wait! Kacch—"

_Thud._

Before he'd realized it, she was gone, his door slamming shut, leaving Izuku alone, confused, and _painfully_ aroused.

"What the _fuck._"

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"—tsumi, hey, Katsumi-chan!"

Against her better judgement, Katsumi paused, waiting for round-face to catch up. But she wasted not time in setting off nearly immediately once the brunette had done so.

"Hey, Katsumi-chan, I'm super excited for class too, but dontcha think we should wait for Izuku-kun?"

Katsumi tensed, inwardly cursing at hot flush that came to her cheeks.

Gravity-girl had only mentioned his fucking _name_ and she was already losing it. How the _hell_ was she supposed to focus on her first _real_ day at UA when all she could think about was the gentle caress of his lips or the hot tickle of his breath on her neck, explosive touches an—

"_Nope_," she said without a backward glance.

Katsumi let out a sigh as the taps of Uraraka's steps resumed a moment later. The tagalongs from middle school usually fucked off after a dismissal like that… But Katsumi had to admit, gravity girl was a whole other level of stubborn.

Was _this_ what it was like to have friends that were girls? So far it seemed to be far more trouble than it was worth.

"Alright then, as long as he won't mind," she let out an innocent chuckle. "You'd probably know better than _I_ would huh?"

_Gah! You're too trusting, round face!_

The truth was she'd fucking chickened out, okay!? As wonderful and as mindblowing finally acting on some of her urges the previous night was, Katsumi had absolutely no clue where she and the nerd stood now.

_He'd_ kissed her first right? She vaguely recalled him pinning her to his bed, but... had she imagined that part? It certainly seemed more in character for dream Deku than real Deku.

How the hell was she supposed to tell them apart anymore!?

Katsumi had definitely imagined him kissing her in the past, and for a moment had trouble discerning her dreams from reality. But after she'd realized it _wasn't _a dream, such an insignificant detail had seemed wholly unimportant in the greater scheme of things.

But _now?!_

Her mind had caught up to her body as she realized she'd practically _assaulted_ the nerd.

Katsumi flushed at the thought of her full-blown panic attack

They'd only gotten to second base before she'd bolted, citing an urgent need for _sleep_ of all things. What a fucking joke…

But once she'd gotten back to her own room, Katsumi had lied awake for _hours_ pondering just what might have happened if she'd stayed.

Katsumi cringed, thinking back on her sudden departure. What the hell did _Deku_ think of her now? Bailing on him like that she'd be surprised if he even _wanted_ a repeat performance.

She cursed under her breath, chewing the tip of her thumb irritably. For nearly a decade the nerd had remained unquestioningly by her side. But they'd been best friends, and it had been simple, and most of the time, effortless.

As exhilarating as this change was, it was also so distinctly _new_, carrying with it an air of uncertainty.

Katsumi _didn't_ do well with uncertainty. At least in this respect.

"Gosh! You're totally out of it this morning, huh, Katsumi-chan? Is everything okay?"

She sighed, waving off the brunette's worries. As guilty as she felt about leaving for class early to avoid talking to Deku so soon, she really did need the extra time to get her fucking head on straight.

Today they were supposed to be taught by All Might after all…

oooOo Izuku oOooo

**"I. Am… coming through the door like a normal person!"**

"It's actually him! We're actually getting taught by _All Might!"_

"Woah."

"That's his silver age costume!"

"He gets _bold_ text too! Gives me goosebumps…"

There was _nothing_ normal about All Might's entrance, but you couldn't really hold that against him. The man seemed to radiate a heroic energy everywhere he walked, and Izuku doubted he could just switch it off any easier than Hagakure could turn off her invisibility.

However, even the prospect of learning from the legend himself couldn't _completely _distract him from his current predicament.

As All Might boisterously outlined the details of Hero Basic Training, Izuku couldn't help but shift his gaze to the girl sitting just one seat in front of him. She appeared to be focusing intently on their sensei, just like she had in the more mundane classes they'd had that day, but he could tell from her posture that her mind was on other things…

_Of _course _it was, idiot._

With the way she'd taken off the previous night he wasn't surprised Katsumi had left early that morning, but he couldn't help but feel the bitter sting of rejection.

He was so _confused. _Kissing Katsumi had honestly been one of the greatest moments of his life, and if he'd been reading her body language correctly, it wasn't half bad for her, either. At least until she'd left so suddenly… Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so handsy with her b—

**"-attle training! And for that… you need these!"**

It only took a split second for Izuku's mind to catch up as a row of futuristic shelving units ejected from the walls with a gentle hiss.

**"In accordance with the 'quirk registry' and the special request forms you filled out before being admitted…"**

The class collectively leaned forward in anticipation.

"No way…"

"He doesn't mean…"

Nearly every child in this quirked society they all lived in had dreamed at one point or another about this day. And now they'd finally get their chance…

**"That's right! A hero's signature so to say. Hero Costumes!" **All Might said, spreading his arms grandly. **"Once you've changed, come out in ranking order and meet me at Ground Beta!"**

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"_Damn_, Yaomomo! I didn't know you were so _daring_," came a shout from the pinkest of her new classmates.

_Just ignore them, Katsumi, you've got battle training with All Might to worry about._ She pulled on a pair of jet-black combat boots, a neon orange strap latching around the back of her calves.

"It wasn't _purposeful! _ All I said was there needed to be an appropriate amount of skin showing to use my quirk! They didn't have to make the rest skin tight!"

"Pfft! _Sure_, girl, keep tellin' yourself that. But _really,_ who's eye out there are ya tryin to catch?"

_**Don't** explode the extras…_

"W-what makes you think I have any intentions o—"

"Aww, cmon! There must be _someone _who's caught your interest? We're in the hero course after all! All those battle-hardened, hero-worthy physiques." The pink one drawled provocatively, "We've got the pick of the damn litter, ladies!"

"Kirishima's body isn't exactly 'carved from marble,' but he gets pretty damn close eh, Mina?" Lobes cut into the debate with a sly look.

Or at least that's what Katsumi assumed, because she absolutely _refused _to have any association with this conversation.

"W-_what!? _Oh, I dunno, _Kirishima_? He's kinda—"

"If we're talkin best body here, it's gotta be Midoriya, right?"

Katsumi stilled.

"Ohmygod! I _know _right_?_ Did you see those _arms_? What a shame we only got a glimpse yesterday!"

"Mina, can your acid dissolve clothing?"

"Pfft! You're _horrible, _I couldn't do _that…_ not on purpose…."

The obnoxious giggles that followed were the final straw as a seething Katsumi spun around only for the words to die in her mouth. She froze at the sight of her classmates' hero costumes.

T-this couldn't be right…

The creation girl hadn't been fuckin' exaggerating. In fact, _daring_ may have been an understatement. She wasn't even wearing _pants _for fucks sake, or they were at least hidden beneath the belts… And the skintight, dark red leotard that was meant to cover the voluptuous girl's upper torso… wasn't doing its job very well.

_Shit._

The others weren't much fucking better either. Katsumi's eyes darted from girl to girl, did she miss the spandex memo or something? Aside from Lobes', every single heroine's costume hugged the girls' forms with impunity. And was Invisalign fucking _naked?!_ Even Uraraka stood several seats down from her tugging at her own costume uncomfortably.

It was no wonder _why_… Katsumi eyed the brunette's chest as it strained against the stretchy blue fabric. How the hell was every girl in here fucking _stacked_?

She met Lobes' eyes for a moment, and actually shared a commiserating look with the girl…

_Nope. _Hell the fuck no, she was _not _doing this right now.

Katsumi glanced down at her own costume with a sigh…

The compression material used for her upper torso and sleeves was tough and functional, woven from a thread in a similar manner to Kevlar though much thinner. She totally dug the bright orange highlights too, but glancing back once more at the rest of their costumes…

Was it… _hot _enough?

She shook her head rapidly, making her already unmanagable hair fluff up even more. Katsumi ignored the obvious irony of the thought, instead focusing on latching the streamlined metal bracers, the most recent version of several iterations, onto each forearm. They made use of a semipermeable membrane to wick and store her explosive for more devastating rapid-fire attacks. The same material lined the soles of her combat boots.

She sighed, some of the tension leaving her frame. Without the nerd's modifications, she'd probably be walking around with fucking grenades on her wrists or something…

Crimson eyes snapped open, razor-sharp and focused once more. This wasn't the time to be worried about whatever the hell was going on with her and Deku, even if it was probably her fault…

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku's nervously adjusted the straps to the sleek, forest green bracers that guarded each of his forearms. For the first actual iteration of his hero costume he err'd on the side of practicality over aesthetic. He stuck with a standard pair of charcoal grey combat pants with a more sturdy material of the same color clinging to the contours of his chest. A green, red and white face mask wrapped around the lower half of his jaw, leaving piercing jade eyes exposed to the elements. As Izuku got his bearings and had a couple years of experience under his belt he could ditch the light armour and rely on his quirk to protect his body. But until that time came, he'd take the extra protection.

Izuku's eyes widened as the girls in his class filed out of the locker rooms, chatting as if they were life-long friends.

He hadn't prepared himself for this…

Izuku knew hero costumes could get a bit revealing, but the girls _really_ hadn't held back with their designs, had they?

And despite knowing it would only distract him further, Izuku found himself searching for that familiar ash blond hair, spotting her a moment later.

Kacchan had no business looking that good in kevlar and bandoliers, but there was something about that tank-girl aesthetic that _really_ did it for him…

the matte black body armour practically molded to the contours of the girl's toned midriff, only coming up to around mid-chest, leaving just a hint of tantalizing cleavage and shoulders bare.

It _really _wasn't helping him keep his mind, _or his eyes,_ off his... friend? Gah! He didn't fucking know anymore!

_What_ was All Might saying?!

**"—The heroes have a limited amount of time to either capture the villains, or secure the weapon!"**

_Weapon_? What weapon? Why hadn't he been paying attention!? His eyes darted to each of his classmates as if the answer to his dilemma would be magically written on their foreheads.

It wasn't.

**"The villains must either capture the heroes or protect the weapon until time is up."**

As All Might continued to explain the scenario, Izuku began to piece together what he'd missed. It sounded like some sort of cliché American blockbuster plot. But he guessed it worked as well as anything to teach them more practical skills.

**"Your battle partners will be decided by… drawing lots!" **The small box he held, which Izuku assumed contained the various teams looked positively miniscule in the hero's massive hands.

"Is that really the best way!?" Iida questioned in disbelief.

Oh! _That's _why he seemed so familiar. Izuku _knew_ he's seen that bionic engine mutation before, but it had taken the full-body armour for him to properly make the connection. Iida _had _to be related to the pro-hero Ingenium!

He'd studied the prodigal hero's quirk intensively, being particularly interested in mechanical mutations to the body. As little as quirks adhered to logic, having human technology develop naturally _inside_ the body was a level of absurdity even Izuku had trouble grasping.

"It makes sense when you think about it," Izuku said softly, thinking back on the hundreds of battles he'd born witness to in his time in the city. He glanced up, only to freeze seeing nearly the entire class's eyes on him.

**"Go on, Midoriya-shonen!" **All Might boomed with a smile.

Izuku coughed lightly into a fist in an attempt to hide how uncomfortable he was with the attention.

"Most heroes work for an agency where you'd indeed work with predetermined teams," He said, conceding that point to Iida with a nod. "But there are multiple hero agencies patrolling a given area at any time, it's not uncommon to have to team up with people you _aren't _familiar with for more dire emergencies." Izuku quirked a smile at their legendary teacher. "Plus, if you fly solo like _some_ people, you've got to be able to mesh with a different hero at any given time."

The class was silent for a moment.

"What the hell?! No one told me Midoriya was smart too?!"

"I'm so freaking jealous!?

"That really does make sense when you think about it," Yaoyorozu chimed in.

"I apologize for getting ahead of myself! Please continue!"

**"Indeed! Well said, young man! Let's get to it!"**

Each student drew a lot, with matching letters indicating pairs. Peering around, Izuku searched for whoever in their class had the C to match his own paper tag.

It seemed fate had its _benevolent_ eye on him after all as he met a familiar pair of crimson eyes. A crumpled paper tag was clutched in her gloved grip, the curved end of what he _knew_ had to be a C peeking out.

And as All Might called up the team A combo of Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami to act as the villains, Izuku had no doubt that his own team would be called up to match.

The fact both terrified him and filled him with relief. At least Kacchan would have to _talk_ to him… _right?_

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

_Fuck!_

Just a little bit of time was all she had asked for! Was that _really _so hard? Was wanting just a another god damn _moment _to herself being too greedy?

But of _course, _she'd been paired with Deku of all people, and _of course_ they were called up to bat the first fucking chance they'd got.

Normally, she'd leap at the chance to flex her superiority in battle. And paired with the nerd too?! These scrubs wouldn't have stood a chance.

But she wasn't _ready…_

Katsumi peered up through pale blond bangs, expression softening as she saw her best friend approaching like he was walking to the gallows.

Well, shit….

She scowled at her own selfishness. Every moment of their relationship was filled with Izuku indulging her many whims while tolerating her less… well… tolerable traits. She knew it couldn't go on like this. Knowing the nerd, he was probably blaming himself for no fucking _reason_, when she could have solved this whole misunderstanding with a few simple words…

This was what she'd _wanted _after all.

_Right?_

Her nerd of a best friend had turned into a total fucking hunk before her eyes and it wasn't the first time she'd thought of making a move… Was she really going to let that chance go to waste after all that time?

Sparks danced inside a clenched fist along with her inner turmoil, which only made the big lug flinch away.

_She had to fix this._

Katsumi wordlessly tugged him towards the tunnel that led to the simulated city itself. Luckily, they had ten minutes to themselves before they'd be expected to capture the bomb or whatever.

Hopefully, this wouldn't take that long.

Katsumi slowed to a stop just inside the exit of the tunnel. Clear daylight speckled the ground just a couple meters away, the entrance to the mock city bright and welcoming. She turned to Izuku, finally taking a moment to take in the intimidating figure he cut in his own hero costume.

Katsumi knew it was cliché to swoon over a hero in uniform, but with his sleeveless body armour, made of a similar material to her own, and those combat pants that hugged his ass like a fucking snack… she found herself for a moment, lost for words.

Katsumi reached out a sparking palm, latching her fingers onto the collar of his suit.

"Um… Kacchan, I'm sormpf—"

She wasn't sure what possessed her to silence his lips with her own in that moment. But her body had seemingly closed the distance between them of its own accord, pulling his hinged face mask away to uncover the _real _prize.

It only took a second for her mind to catch up to her body.

Fucking _shit_, had she just _kissed_ him?! Was she _still_ kissing him?!

Oh… he should do that thing with his tongue again… _wait_ no! She was supposed to be setting things straight, not getting lost in the way his muscular arm curved around her waist ever so gently. Or the way their tongues clashed in a passionate dance that was possibly the _furthest_ thing from gentle Katsumi could imagine.

Their kiss slowed to a comfortable, _tender_ pace, and Katsumi _somehow_ found her back against a flat surface _again_. The stone wall was a hell of a lot less comfortable than the nerd's bed.

"I'm… confused?" Deku said a moment after they'd parted.

She sighed. "That's… probably my fault, Deku… I…" she trailed off, the words failing her.

"Kacchan wha—"

"I chickened out, okay!?" She snapped angrily. None of her anger was directed at him, of course, but she'd never let that stop her before…

He peered at her curiously, not blaming her in the least but seeking to understand.

_Typical._

"I'm sorry… okay? I bailed on you and that totally wasn't cool…" she _felt_ the heat come to her cheeks as she tried to voice her next thought. "Its not th-that I wasn'tenjoyingmyself."

"What was that?"

"Fucking _shit,_ nerd you _heard_ me! Don't make me say it again!" She scowled, pacing the dark tunnel in agitation.

"So… we can kiss some more…"

God… her face must have been fucking _flaming. _"_Fuck_, Deku, you don't have to say it so plainly!"

"Then, could we uh… not kiss anyone else… please?" He hedged, trying to follow her direction.

Katsumi couldn't help the pleasant fluttering sensation that filled her gut at the implication.

"I'd like to see you fuckin try, nerd…" she bit out, thankful for the darkness for hiding her atomic flush.

**"Attention, Villain team A's allotted preparation time has expired, Hero team C may enter the premises." **All Might's voice boomed over the loudspeaker, somehow appearing just as grand through a mic as he did in person.** "You have ten minutes, Indoor Antipersonnel Battle Training! Begin!"**

_Shit_, they'd really cut it close there. But as she met Deku's eyes with a clear conscience and their tentative relationship sorted out, at least for the moment, all that was left was to show these shitty villains the product of superior talent combined with sheer, backbreaking effort.

And a little luck of course.

Katsumi grinned a bloodthirsty smile as Deku's skyboard took shape before them.

"Death from above?!" she said eagerly.

He had the nerve to _sigh_ in response. "Kacchan, we can't call it 'Death from Above,' we're _heroes…"_

She scowled, _"_Fuckin killjoy_…"_

oooOo Toshinori oOooo

"Midoriya can _fly?!"_

"That's so fucking _rad!"_

The shout was joined by many other others in a similar vein and Yagi would be lying if he said he didn't find _some_ amusement in his class's reaction to the young man's ability. It also had the unintended side effect of taking some of the pressure off.

Yagi would happily be a hero twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week without complaint. In fact, it was one of his greatest wishes, now that he was _actually_ limited to less than three hours a day. But in the brief time he'd had to impart his wisdom on these impressionable youths he was already exhausted.

If _this _was the kind of pressure teaching put on his body, then he might have to rethink how much time a day he _truly_ had to spare.

Day by day, the time grew closer to when Yagi would no longer have the luxury of choosing his own successor, and his legendary ability would have to pass to young Mirio by default.

There was nothing _wrong _with the boy. Quite the opposite in fact. On paper, Mirio was the perfect vessel for One for All in mind, body, and spirit.

But it just seemed so _clinical_. Especially when compared to the bond he had with his _own_ sensei. As painful as his memories of Nana were, he cherished the time they'd had together all the same. To simply go through the motions with a successor of someone else's choosing, even if they _were_ a trusted friend…

It felt like he'd be disgracing Nana's legacy.

But then, he'd met young Midoriya.

It was almost as if fate had delivered a perfect vessel to his doorstep. Disciplined, kind and sporting a powerful quirk to match, it was no wonder the boy had caught his eye. Judging from his exemplary performance in the entrance exam he clearly didn't lack the heart of a hero either.

But there was still something holding him back, something preventing him from approaching the young man this very day. A… spark? Was missing. And for the life of him, Yagi Toshinori simply _didn't _know what it was.

But he knew he'd know it when he saw it, as little sense as that made.

Yagi turned his shadowed eyes back to the screen. Perhaps Midoriya would know better than he…

oooOo Izuku oOooo

The streamlined pair of combat boots Izuku had designed for his hero costume were working _just_ as he'd intended.

From the outside they looked to be a variation of the stylish red sneakers he wore on a day to day basis. _These _however, were constructed from battle grade materials, and refined to look and act bit more streamlined.

But the _true_ genius was in the inner and outer sole of the shoe.

Namely, there _was _no sole. _That_ particular component had been omitted completely, allowing direct skin contact to his skyboard without losing the protective advantage of the boots themselves. A minuscule amount of quicksteel served as the soles whenever he _wasn't _flying.

The wind ruffled his hair as Izuku made a quick sweep of the perimeter of the building for a bit of early recon. There was no need to rush in gun's blazing in this situation.

There hadn't been any indication from the outside as to which floor the villain team had set up on. But considering who their opponents were, it wasn't exactly surprising.

Yaoyorozu's creation quirk seemed to be limitless in its potential application, and as long as he had no knowledge of its limitations or drawbacks, it'd be nearly impossible to plan for every situation.

As for Tokoyami's quirk, Izuku had almost nothing on it.

The raven-headed boy hadn't used it at all in the quirk apprehension test the previous day, but whether that was due to not being able to, or a reason more in line with Izuku's own reasoning that day he wasn't sure.

Izuku tried to avoid prejudice whenever possible, but with a name like Tokoyami Fumikage… There was probably a good reason why they'd avoided the rooms in direct sunlight.

Izuku came gliding to a stop where he'd left Kacchan by the entrance. She shot him a grin that had his stomach doing summersaults, but he shoved away the feeling, a haze of razor-sharp focus settling over his mind.

"We good to go, nerd?"

He nodded, "No sign of them from the outside, and they're probably avoiding the outer windows since none of them are furnished at all."

"So I can blast the roof off now right?"

"Kacchan…" he sighed, praying for patience. "We're making a precise infiltration with your quirk!"

…

"You know… with stealth? And no noise?"

…

"So can I—"

"_Yes,_ you can blast the roof off," He bit out.

She snickered adorably, instantly erasing any irritation that had been building. Kastumi held out a hand, wordlessly asking for an arm up onto his skyboard. "Don't you _dare _fucking drop me, Deku."

"Yeah, yeah. Drop a girl _one time_ in the sand and you never hear the end of it."

"My ass was bruised for _days,_ nerd. Take responsibility!"

He flushed lightly at the thought but pulled the girl up, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her close. Now that Izuku knew he could _actually_ get away with these casual touches, and they might even be _welcome_, he planned to take every opportunity to indulge his wishes.

He widened the base of his skyboard so it resembled a floating platform. All jokes aside, balancing on such a precarious foundation took _years _of practice to achieve his level of proficiency, and that was with total command of the board itself…

The fact that Katsumi could stay perched so steadily even on an expanded surface was a testament to her absurd sense of balance.

He guided them to the roof of the simulation building where they settled, Kacchan stepping away lightly. He couldn't help but let out a giddy shiver as she trailed the tips of her fingers over his skin, as if hesitant to lose that contact.

"Wipe that grin off your face, nerd. It's showtime."

Her palms burst into a smoldering, _blisteringly _hot flame, which she turned to the stone roof a moment later.

A stealthy entrance may have been a bit optimistic, but as the concrete roof of the simulation building caved in with a shattering explosion, Izuku had no other choice but to roll with what she'd given him.

He dropped through the dark hole left by Katsumi's superheated palms, surrounding himself with quicksteel to protect from the molten slag along the edges. The familiar fatigue washed over him, but he shook it off easily enough, having battled the heat of Kacchan's quirk for most of his life.

What he _wasn't _expecting, however, was the massive force that slammed into him the moment he touched down into the room itself.

Luckily, he'd caught a flash of darkness in his peripherals just in time to solidify his quirk, saving him from the brunt of the impact. Unfortunately, he was still flung bodily into the closest wall by the force of the blow, though not hard enough to cause any permanent damage.

Izuku hissed out a curse, not knowing whether this should be considered absurdly _good_ luck or not.

He'd meant to guess the general area the villain team was hiding, not the exact room! But as they said, every good plan lasts until first contact with the enemy.

Izuku ducked a humming strike from a bo staff over his left shoulder, instinctively tossing out a mule kick in the general area of the attack. He was rewarded with a solid thud and distinctly feminine grunt of pain.

Izuku rolled away, trusting Kacchan to guard any further attacks to his flank. Sure enough, she dropped through the hole a moment later, intercepting Yaoyorozu's staff as it cut through the air for a follow-up strike.

It left Izuku completely free to focus on Tokoyami.

At least… he _thought_ it was Tokoyami.

The writhing specter that loomed over him shared little in common with the reserved young man he'd met the day previously. The _gaping _maw of the beast was like looking directly into the void, and those menacing yellow eyes gleaming eerily in the dim lighting of the room.

The hazy shadow _lunged, _swinging a wicked, razor-sharp claw towards a much smaller Izuku.

But he stood resolute, undaunted in the face of impending danger. As formless and intangible as this shadow-beast appeared, he knew first hand that its blows were undeniably _solid._ Disregarding how it got the jump on him earlier, if it was solid, then it was something he could fight.

A grin split his lips.

Izuku deftly ducked the wild swing, a metallic fist whipping out in response. The blow cracked satisfyingly against the mass of writhing darkness, flinging it back into the dark corners of the room. For something so obviously supernatural, it felt frighteningly fleshy, like a living beast overcome by shadows.

But that was a mere observation, in this fight, it meant nothing to him. This entity was merely the being standing between him and victory.

Izuku parried another blow from the blackness, quicksteel-coated forearms taking the brunt of the damage before he lashed out with a textbook side kick, putting some distance between he and the shadow. The beast lunged back with a vengeance, fighting with an animalistic ferocity and seemingly unending reserves of energy.

As he tracked the vicious claw through the air, parrying the blow a moment later, Izuku picked out Katsumi taking on Yaoyorozu in the opposite corner of the room.

The taller girl clearly wielded her bo staff with a confidence born of years of practice, but there was a brutality in Kacchan's approach to battle that Yaoyorozu's technique simply didn't hold up to. Katsumi avoided using any stronger blasts in such an enclosed space, choosing to take on the bo staff with her bare hands.

A hint of pride welled in his chest as Katsumi systematically disabled Yaoyorozu's formidable offense, though not without taking some solid hits from the taller girl.

Even with knuckles bruised and bleeding, Kacchan looked like she was having the absolute time of her life.

Especially as she ducked under another of the girl's strikes to deliver a devasting counter directly to her exposed ribs, activating her quirk for perhaps the first time in their little brawl.

Yaoyorozu was sent tumbling to the stone floor from the power of the blow. She came to rest against one of the many pillars that filled the room, ribs battered painfully but surprisingly still conscious. In a show of tenacity that impressed both he _and _Katsumi, though Izukuk knew she'd never admit it, the girl struggled to her feet once more.

Katsumi strafed around her opponent like a predator stalking its prey. The flames dancing at her fingertips just barely lit up her fair features, a manic grin exposing rows of pearly white teeth. In the dark lighting of the room, she looked almost as intimidating as Tokoyami.

Another blow from the shroud of darkness slammed into his guard, rattling his teeth with its intensity. But as Izuku caught sight of Katsumi slipping another sparking palm through Yaoyorozu's guard, he came to a startling realization.

They were being dumb as shit…

As much has he hated to deny Kacchan the fight she clearly wanted to finish, it would be the height of folly to not exploit such an obvious weakness.

"Kacchan, remember the sludge monster?" he called out.

She ceased her predatory approach, eyes darting quickly to his own before settling once more on the girl heaving deep lungfuls of air before her. "_Naw_… _what _sludge monster? The fuck kinda question is that?" she said shooting him a sarcastic glance, but as he met her eyes, he saw that she understood what he was getting at.

They'd been going about it wrong the entire time.

Tokoyami's sentient quirk launched itself once more at Izuku, but this time he had no intention of taking the blow himself.

"_Kacchan!"_

_"**Flash Bang!"**_

Izuku, well used to protecting himself from Katsumi's diverse array of explosions merely threw up a dome to preserve his eyesight and launched himself towards a blinded Yaoyorozu.

To her credit, the girl got in a couple good swings with her staff, even bereft of her sight. But in the end, her defeat was inevitable. Izuku secured her arms behind her back with the roll of capture tape they were given beforehand.

His head snapped towards where he last saw Tokoyami's beast, only to double take at the sight of Kacchan standing over the boy himself, pinning him in place with a booted foot. Her palm flickered with the embers of an explosion waiting to detonate as a diminutive version of the once-colossal shadow cringed against its host's chest.

Izuku breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Tokoyami was down for the count, and that should mean…

**"The villain team has been captured, Hero Team WINNNSSSSS!"**

**AN: So… I usually hate what I consider unnecessary angst, and after reading through the chapter for the first time since I wrote it, I've agonized over whether Katsumi's panic was even in-character. I considered rewriting the first half of the chapter altogether, but at the end of the day, that's what I envisioned initially, so I decided to stick with it. Even though the characters are older than canon, they obviously have zero experience with relationships. It felt right that Katsumi would be hesitant to initially commit, even if she'd already logically admitted her feelings to herself.**

**At the end of the day, the pining lasts for barely a chapter so even if you hate it, or think it was unnecessary, everything turns out ok in the end.**

**As for the power Tokoyami shows in the battle training, I imagine that to be the highest level he can reach at this point without losing control. Also, fans of Momo might feel she was underrepresented in this chapter, but keep in mind this is just from Izuku's point of view. A better explanation of her role will come in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: *misses Katsumi's birthday by a day***

**Chapter 11**

School Daze

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Yoooo, Midoriya! What the hell was _that_, man?" Kirishima cried the minute the four combatants returned to the observation room.

"I don't know you very well, but for some reason that seemed to be typical for you, Katsumi-chan... _k__ero_."

Izuku laughed while Katsumi growled unintelligibly. Izuku didn't know Asui that well either, but he couldn't help but grin at the accurate assessment of his fr-girlfriend?

"Take me for a ride sometime too! kay, Midoriya?"

He _really_ hoped Hagakure was talking about his board…

"Back the fuck up, Invisalign! We don't got _time _for this shit!" Katsumi growled. She stomped back to her place in the observation room, dragging him along by the wrist. "Teach your damn class, All Might!"

The hero's slightly affronted reaction was hilarious enough, but… was Kacchan getting… _territorial? _He had to be imagining things, right? As absurd as the thought was, Izuku couldn't help but indulge in the fantasy for a while.

All Might coughed lightly into a brick sized fist, obviously trying to settle his nerves. The juxtaposition was oddly endearing, not detracting at all from the feeling of protection he exuded. **"Indeed, young Bakugo, and well done, all of you! That was a wonderful first showing!"**

The four of them all nodded severely, still amped up from the action minutes earlier.

All Might propped his hands on his hips, **"Now, can anyone tell me who the MVP might be from this operation? Anyone?"**

For a moment they were silent, each student looking to the others for an answer, so Izuku decided to speak up.

"It's gotta be Yaoyorozu, right?"

..

Katsumi's scowl was venomous. "Hah?! The fuck you mean _her, _Deku? We kicked fuckin ass!"

She was predictably pissed as hell, but thinking about it objectively, the reasoning was obvious. "We won _because_ we were superior fighters," he said simply. "If we were judging based on planning and foresight, or the spirit of the scenario, the choice is obvious." He turned to the black-haired girl across the room. "Yaoyorozu, you'd booby trapped both doors to that room, right?"

She nodded sharply. "And all the major choke points of the building…blind corners… oh, and the stairwell…"

_Shit_… they really _had _lucked out.

"Yaoyarozu-san helped shroud the room in darkness as well, creating blackout curtains for all the windows," Tokoyami said gruffly. "Were it not for her aide I fear Dark Shadow would not have stood a chance against the might of Midoriya's quirk."

So _that's _what his quirk was called.

Fitting.

"But you both saw right through all my preparations!" Yaoyorozu said, frowning in obvious frustration. "You just skipped right past the building, and came through the roof… How _did _you get up there so quickly anyway?"

"Uh… girl, Midoriya can surf on his quirk and it's kinda rad," Jiro said. The rocker chick gave him a sidelong glance, twirling one of her earphone jacks slowly around a finger.

Izuku really hoped that wasn't the sound of Kacchan's teeth cracking to his right. As much as he usually tried to avoid incidents where Katsumi committed mass murder, he had to admit the attention was incredibly flattering.

Don't get him wrong, Izuku doubted his feelings for his best friend would ever change. But such open admiration from his peers was an entirely new experience for him. He couldn't help but enjoy having his ego stroked a bit.

His felt his grin widen involuntarily as Katsumi shifted ever so slightly closer to him, just enough to brush their forearms together.

"Oh my god! It's finally happened!" Uraraka hissed suddenly, those closest to the girl turning to her curiously. But her eyes were locked firmly on _him._ Or more specifically, he and _Kacchan._

Maybe they could have been a little more subtle.

Luckily, the girl had enough tact to wave off the inquiries as to what she'd meant, limiting herself to bobbing in place happily.

Izuku had to remember to thank her later…

It wasn't that he was ashamed of the recent changes, in fact a part of him wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But another, more rational part really wanted to take things slowly and get this right the first time around. That could all come later though, Yaoyorozu was still stewing self-consciously on what she perceived as her own failure.

"To put it bluntly, we got lucky," he said to the frowning girl. She met his eyes while the others in the class were once again attentive to what he had to say.

How _strange…_

"Kacchan and I picked a spot at random… Sure, we narrowed down the choices to somewhere out of the sun but dropping past all the defenses you'd created was just dumb luck." He shrugged a bit self-consciously, "I'm not saying we would have lost…"

"Fat fucking chance—"

"But your decisions weren't _in_correct, y'know?"

"I see…" Yaoyorozu said thoughtfully. She nodded sharply, seeming to have gained a bit of her confidence back. She'd have to work on that… Despite clearly being more than competent in heroics, the beauty certainly didn't have the ego to match. Most of the time that was a good thing, but there were certainly situations where a bit of bravado couldn't hurt.

Izuku grinned inwardly, chancing another glance towards Katsumi.

He quite liked a bit of bravado in a girl….

**"Well put, Midoriya-kun! Yaoyorozu's forethought was indeed impressive, despite the situation not panning out as she'd planned!"** All Might boomed, with a smile. **"But I urge you not to shortchange the worth of pure combat prowess." **He clenched a mighty fist before his shadowed eyes. **"The powers wielded by evil in this quirked society of ours are insidious and everchanging, be sure to never rule out a possibility before you've confirmed it for yourself," **he said, meeting the eyes of the Yaoyorozu.

**"And as for you, Midoriya-kun, Bakugo-chan, a bit _more_ forethought wouldn't go amiss, alright?!"**

"Understood, sir!" Izuku snapped out reflexively. The man simply commanded that much respect.

"Yeah… whatever, All Might."

Well… most of the time …

**"Now then! The next hero team will be…"**

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

The biting scent of soy sauce and ginger filled the air as Katsumi deftly tossed a sizzling wok filled with the beginnings of her dinner. She was by no means an expert cook, but the few dishes she _did _know how to make, usually turned out ok.

The Heights Alliance dorm building certainly hadn't skimped on the more luxiourious aspects of temporary housing. The kitchen was fully stocked, and large enough to cook enough for the entire dorm at once.

"_Mmmm, _something smells so _good!"_

"Fuck off, Pinky! Get your own!"

"Aww, c'mon Kastumiiii! Aren't we _friends?_"

"Fuck no!"

The nerd _forcing_ her to make enough for round face too was already pushing it. Katsumi had no obligation to cook for the rest of her new classmates, no matter how unsettling it was when they didn't fuck off when she told them to… That was just plain _weird._

"—Right… so does the number of tagged objects effect how difficult it is to maintain the weightlessness? Or is it more of a hard cap at a certain mass?"

Her eyes snapped over to where the nerd in question sat with Uraraka. Deku was finally getting a chance to nerd out to his heart's content, so Katsumi would suffer through the peppy girl's company for _one _meal.

"Well… I've made plenty of stuffed animals float at once," Uraraka said, laughing bashfully. "But I could only manage a couple of the two pointers from the exam, and the three-pointers I had to take on one by one…."

"So a hard cap then…" Deku nodded, scribbling into a familiar looking notebook. "I assume your limit's increased over time?"

Uraraka nodded with pinched eyebrows.

"Have you ever tested any correlation between physical fitness and your upper limit?"

The brunette shook her head, "I've spent the most time trying to float myself for longer periods." Her expression sagged and it really didn't suit the girl. "It hasn't gone very well…"

Katsumi knew that fuckin look in the nerd's eye…

"That's probably your best bet," he mused, leaning back with his hands behind his head.

Katsumi tried desperately to ignore the way his shirt strained against the muscle of his chest or the slight peak of shredded abdominals that flashed with his movement. But it was a fruitless effort. Her stirring grew more aggressive as she unknowingly bit her bottom lip.

"Have you ever isolated the cause of your nausea?" he said after a moment of thought.

Katsumi had never thought anyone could make confusion look adorable, but round face somehow managed it.

"I don't follow… I get sick from overusing my quirk."

"Well, yes that_ is_ true, but most of the time it isn't the _whole_ truth. Take Kacchan for example," Deku glanced her way. "She can get headaches from overusing her quirk."

"Don't fucking _tell_ people that shit, nerd!"

"But it's not really some supernatural force giving her headaches, just the body's natural response to sweating more than the liquid you consume. It's just dehydration."

Was he fucking ignoring her? She eyed her wok, trying to focus on the conversation and dinner at the same time.

The pink one slid dangerously close to the nerd at their dorm's common room table. "Wow, you're like some quirk superguru._" _

Was Pinky trynna _die? _Katsumi's wooden spoon had come dangerously close to snapping in that moment. But her ire settled in the next as she observed the nerd's response.

At least Izuku had the decency to _look_ uncomfortable. Katsumi'd nearly snorted at the pleading looks he shot her from across the room. She'd never tire of seeing him so flustered, even if she preferred to cause it herself…

Maybe this _wouldn't_ be so bad… As long as these bitches knew Deku was _hers_, why _not_ let him drown in the attention for a while?

"Heh… Hardly," Izuku eventually laughed. "I've been catalouging quirks since, well…" he shot a tender glance Katsumi's way that totally _didn't _make her weak in the knees. "-since as long as I can remember. Uraraka was kind enough to answer some questions I had about her quirk. I was ah… actually pretty curious about yours as well, Ashido-san. If you don't mind that is…"

Katsumi huffed, tossing in a bowl of leftover rice from the night before into her wok, taking out her aggression as she chopped it all together. At least making fried rice let her zone out to her heart's content…

"Hmm…" the girl hesitated for a moment, and Katsumi recognized a flash of a familiar emotion in her startling yellow eyes.

Katsumi wasn't quite sure what possessed her to speak up, but she felt a need to clarify his request. "Deku'll have asked our entire class about their quirks by the end of the week, Pinky. He's not singling you out or anything…"

The horned girl seemed startled by Katsumi's words, but regained some of her pep a moment later. "Right! So, what do you want to know?" she said, grinning mischievously.

"Hmmm…" Izuku mused tapping a pencil against the tabletop. "Might want to start with some basic information… I got a good look at everyone's quirks during All Might's battle training today, but It'd probably be best to make sure I wasn't off on anything."

"Alrighty then! The name's Ashido Mina, and my three sizes are—"

"Not _that_ info, Pinky!"

"Aheheh… just kidding?"

"Oh! Are we doing introductions?! Me next! Me next!"

Katsumi's eyes snapped to the shitty-haired guy from her class as he strolled in through the hall leading to the boys' rooms. As his entrance seemed to start an avalanche of people entering from both sides of the dorms, Katsumi kissed her last chances at a peaceful evening goodbye.

At least Izuku seemed to be in heaven surrounded be so many people willing to tell him about their quirks.

"Hey! Bakugo! You making dinner?"

"Fuck _off, _Pikachu!"

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Think you're hot shit now, _huh, Deku?" _

Katsumi's breath ghosted across his collarbone while her feathery spikes of hair tickled the underside of his jaw. But any thought of that was quickly driven out of his mind as the girl's lips parted, sucking lightly on the sensitive skin of his neck.

Izuku gulped thickly. Where the _hell_ had this come from? Not that he was complaining or anything, but He was having trouble understanding how the blushing Kacchan from the night before had somehow been replaced by this devilish seductress in a single day.

Any further pondering on the matter quickly seemed irrelevant as Katsumi slowly trailed up the side of his jaw, peppering gentle kisses all the way. However, the girl merciless hesitated as she reached the corner of his mouth, staring challengingly up into his eyes.

Izuku'd headed off to bed with fingers sore from writing so much in one sitting, but content with the info he'd gathered on his new peers. Only to be pinned almost immediately to his door the minute he set foot in his room.

The fiery blonde had wasted no time in her lustful assault.

Izuku pushed the last of those thoughts out of his head, instead choosing to close the final few centimeters between them, claiming her lips for the third time in two days. But there was something noticeably different about this particular encounter. A mutual understanding had been reached. It gave way to a fervor between them in that moment that was distinctly absent from before.

Gone were the lingering thoughts of miscommunication, absent was the fear of ruined friendships… and this time he was _sure _it wasn't simply a dream manifesting his deepest desires.

It all left Izuku free to enjoy the simple softness of Kacchan's pale lips dancing with his own, or the feminine curves of her toned figure lying deliciously flush with the hard planes of his chest.

Izuku caressed the curve of her spine, slipping his fingertips under the loosened blouse of her UA uniform. ghosting over the prominent swell of her rear. His jaw nearly dropped open at the spine-tingling _whimper_ that Kacchan let out into his mouth.

He'd never heard her make that noise before, but he was certain of one thing…

He _definitely,_ wanted to hear it again….

But all thought of going on the offensive went out the window as Katsumi aggressively ground her pelvis against his own. Even over their clothes, the delicious friction earned nearly an instant response from his already throbbing member.

His resolution to take things slowly was rapidly crumbling before his eyes, and she fucking knew it too…

"K-atsumi!" he choked out between kisses.

"What's wrong, nerd?" she hissed out, continuing her slow grinding. "There a… fucking… _problem," _she taunted with each thrust forward.

The door rattled with their motion, the animalistic dry-humping they'd devolved to reaching a fever pitch. Izuku finally caved, grabbing two handfuls of the ass he'd been tempted by for _years,_ and aided her desperate rutting.

Katsumi clamped her powerful legs around his hips, increasing the pace even further while still tangling their tongues madly.

A familiar feeling built at the base of his groin but with an intensity he'd never managed to reach himself. It was no wonder considering his absolute _seductress _of a best friend was the cause rather than his own hand.

"Katsumi, I'm—"

"Don't you _dare _fuckin stop, Izuku!"

_God_. Stopping was the last thing on his mind…

His grip on her pliable rear tightened as he forcibly ground her core against his own, hoping for all the was good in the world that Katsumi was as close to release as he was. The layers of clothes between them were uncomfortable at first, but they could only prevent the stimulation so much, and Izuku felt himself nearing his limit.

Luckily, Katsumi seemed just as close.

"Just… a little… m_Ohhmmf"_

Her whole body tensed, powerful legs nearly crushing his waist as she vibrated at the intensity of what he _hoped _was her own release.

Izuku barely got a chance to appreciate the image of Katsumi's head thrown back in the midst of a powerful orgasm as he too plummeted over the edge.

Pulsating waves of purely physical euphoria washed over him as his member erupted. It was, frankly, the most intense feeling he'd ever experienced. And that was over their _clothes._

It could have been minutes or hours that Izuku was immersed in the throes of pleasure, and understandably, found himself lost for words.

"That was…" he trailed off, language coming up lacking to describe what had just occurred.

Katsumi panted heavily, breath tickling his neck where she'd buried her face throughout her release. In fact, she hadn't moved at all since then, legs seemingly permanently locked around his waist, and his hands still _supporting_ her bottom.

For a moment they didn't move, basking in the afterglow of_ finally_ releasing at least a _drop _of _years _of sexual tension. But even coming off the back of such an act, Izuku could already feel the stirrings of renewed lust for this succubus before him.

The way she started wiggling her hips around in his hands wasn't helping matters, but her next words served to break his spell.

"Those pants are _fucked."_

"Pfft."

The damn broke and Katsumi and he both collapsed into gales of laughter. Izuku slid down the door, keeping the smaller girl clutched in his arms. The uncomfortable sticky feeling from his groin only served to set him off again, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath.

"Shit," Katsumi cursed quietly.

"What is it?"

"I, uh…" she could only avoid his gaze so well, straddling his lap as she was. "I burnt your shirt…"

His eyes widened in surprise, glancing over his shoulder to where she'd been clutching his back moments earlier. He'd felt the sting in the back of his mind but had just thought she'd gotten a bit aggressive with her grip. Sure enough, the white material of his uniform shirt was blackened and charred through in two distinctly palm-sized patches. To think that he'd driven her to the point of losing control of her quirk…

He couldn't help the warm rush of pride at that.

"Wipe that fucking smirk off your face, nerd," she bit out. But the brilliant flush that lit up her face ruined any intimidation factor she may have had going for her.

His grin widened.

oooOoOoOooo

"I've reviewed the footage from Battle training yesterday," Aizawa drawled. "Your overall performances…

-were acceptable."

The class let out a collective sigh of relief. At least they wouldn't put so some absurd test based on the results.

"However,"

They tensed up once more.

"You'll need to come to a consensus on a class president…"

"That's a totally normal school activity!" cried some of the more outspoken students.

"I wanna be president! Lemme do it!" Kirishima said, jumping excitedly.

"The position was made for me," Aoyama twinkled.

"I'd like to do it too…"

"I wanna be a leader!"

"In my administration, girls will have to show at least 30 cm of thigh!

Izuku's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Mineta's comments were questionable before, but it was a bit more personal now that he was actually involved with one of the women the miniature hero student spoke of so carelessly.

There were several prime choices for class president in Izuku's opinion, Iida was practically _built_ for the role, and with a bit more confidence, Yaoyorozu would probably succeed as well. But as long as Mineta wasn't elected he could probably live with whoever _was._

"Leading the many is a task of heavy responsibility, but simply _wanting_ the role is not enough!"

The class quieted down as Iida lectured them all, but Izuku grinned seeing the boy's hand remaining ramrod straight in the air.

He must really want the role…

"Dude, what are you _talking _about?" Kaminari snickered.

Iida adjusted his glasses severely with his other hand. "If this is to be a democracy, then I put forward the motion… That our true leader must be chosen by election!"

Izuku nodded thoughtfully. "There's merit to the idea…"

"But won't everyone just vote for themselves?" Mina asked curiously.

"For someone to receive more than a single vote from their peers simply means that they were that deserving of the role! Sensei, will you allow it?!" Iida snapped a flattened arm towards Aizawa.

"Do what you want, just make it quick…"

Kacchan turned to stare him down from her seat one ahead of his.

"_Noo…_"

"He's the best for the job…"

"_Dekuu_…"

"Do you even _want_ to be the class rep?!"

"I ain't gonna be subservient to _engines,"_ she said, tone dripping with distain.

"Like the job comes with_ that_ kind of authority," Izuku laughed. "Look, if you don't want Iida to be class rep then you can always use _your_ vote on someone else.

The look she gave him was particularly unamused, and yet still managed to set his heart racing. The downright aggressive way she'd come on to him the previous night was still fresh on his mind. He had no idea what had gotten into Kacchan, but it certainly wasn't an unwelcome change…

"—ku, oi, Nerd!"

Izuku broke out of his thoughts with a flush, meeting Kacchan's narrowed gaze. She held out a strip of paper that he was meant to vote on. "Quit spacin' out…" she said softly. She glanced away in an attempt to remain aloof, but Izuku caught the hint of a flush dusting her cheeks as well.

oooOoOoOooo

"_Use your vote for someone else_?! The fuck did I listen to such shitty advice," Katsumi grumbled, stabbing her lunch aggressively.

"How was I supposed to know so many people would vote for me?" Izuku asked rhetorically. "_I_ didn't even vote for me!"

_Somehow,_ Izuku had been voted class president, with Yaoyorozu his deputy, much to the obvious ire of his girlfriend.

_God_, that was such a weird way to think of Kacchan… It was technically accurate, but just seemed so… flat. A title that represented merely the tip of the iceberg that was their relationship. Did an added sexual attraction really invalidate nearly a decade of genuine friendship? That didn't sound right to Izuku.

"Katsumi-chan's just jealous, _k__ero."_

**_"_**Go to hell, Kermit!"

Asui remained impressively unflinching in the face of Katsumi's retort. "I only say what's on my mind."

They'd decided to eat in the dining hall that day, giving Izuku the first look at the full scope UA's attendees. Since only the two classes dedicated to the hero course were housed in dorms, they'd never spent any significant time with the rest of the first years.

The various classes tended to stick together to different degrees. The Business students sat packed tightly together into the four tables in the corner closest to the exits while support and general ed were interspersed throughout the center of the room.

Izuku and Kastumi had claimed the table closest to the kitchen, where he could properly observe pro-hero Lunch Rush work his magic. Kacchan sat with mild exasperation as he scribbled notes on the pro. But Izuku had a feeling he could watch the man for years and never truly understand his culinary genius. The way he almost singlehandedly served five-star meals to hundreds of students without even breaking a sweat was almost like magic.

They'd been joined by Uraraka, Asui and Iida a couple minutes later.

"I, for one, think you will be a wonderful Class president, Midoriya-kun. I knew that the minute you rushed in without hesitation to take on that monstrosity in the entrance exam!"

"Sounds fuckin familiar…"

"I agree, Midoriya-kun," Asui croaked. "Your performance in All Might's battle training was a show for sure…"

"Oh, you mean in the _pair _battles?!" Kacchan cut in once more.

"Besides, Katsumi-chan probably has no problem with Izuku being president," Uraraka added with a devious smile. "I think it's the vice pres that she's worried about."

She giggled, dodging Kacchan's retaliatory swipe like a pro.

"I'm surprised you voted for someone else so easily Iida-kun," Asui said, touching a single finger to her mouth in thought. "Didn't you want the job yourself? _k__ero."_

_"_Yeah, you've got the glasses and everything!?" Uraraka said earnestly.

"The fuck does _that _have to do with anything?!"

Iida straightened up, primly wiping his mouth with a napkin. "I humbly made the choice I felt was correct."

Izuku nodded in understanding, acknowledging the show of trust from the taller boy. But taller boy's formal manner of speech reminded Izuku of something he'd been curious about.

"Iida, I've been wondering for a while now… your quirk, I've seen another like it before in my hero studies. You wouldn't happen to be related to Ingenium, would you?"

The studious boy heaved a sigh, "Quite astute of you, Midoriya-kun, I had hoped to avoid being treated any differently than my peers just because of my family, but you are indeed correct! My brother is the latest of a long line of prestigious heroes to hold the Iida name, commanding over sixty sidekicks in his agency alone, the turbo-hero **_Ingenium_**!"

If Iida exuded any more pride for his brother, he'd be nearing Kacchan levels, but it _was_ inspiring in a way. Izuku knew better than anyone that a role model did wonders for a prospective hero's progress.

Izuku didn't get any more time to bask in Iida's praise though, as a shrieking alarm began blaring over every loudspeaker in the building.

The dining hall erupted in chaos as students haphazardly scrambled towards the nearest exit, heedless of those that stood in their path.

Izuku latched a steely grip on the jacket of a nearby third year, halting him it his tracks. "What's going on, what does that alarm mean?!"

"There's been a breach on the campus! It's never happened before since I've been here!"

He slacked his grip, letting the panicking boy go free and instantly began wading his way through the crowd towards Katsumi. To his surprise, the girl was bodying her way through the crowd with Uraraka tucked safely to her side.

Huh. Apparently, she'd grown more fond of the brunette than he'd thought…

"The fuck is goin' on, nerd?" she growled.

"Someone breached the security system," he shouted over the alarms still blaring in their ears.

She elbowed a second year out of the way after the poor guy bumped into her. "Prestigious University my ass! They ever hear of a fucking fire drill?!"

He couldn't help but agree. Even now he saw some of the smaller students nearly be trampled under the panicking crowd. His eyes darted around, looking for something, _anything_, that could help calm the mob of students.

"Midoriya-kun!" His eyes snapped to Iida, who had somehow ended up flattened against the glass of the nearest window. "It's the press! There is no danger!"

Oh, well that made things a bit easier.

Without pausing to consider the consequences, he quickly scooped Kacchan up into a bridal carry before using his quirk to glide them above the crowd.

"Put me the _fuck_ down, Deku!" she raged through an adorable flush, pounding a fist against his chest.

He'd have to do this more often if _that's _the reaction he got.

"Can you draw their attention?" he asked, ignoring her indignant shout.

She immediately grasped what he was getting at. After giving him a moment to plug his ears with a tiny amount of quicksteel, she let lose a deafening blast that immediately silenced the surging crowd.

Eyes raised to his position as people quickly located the source of the noise.

"You're acting like a bunch of children." Izuku said simply, his voice carrying to the very back of the room despite his conversational tone.

Multiple sets of eyes widened as the took in the sight of Izuku levitating so casually above their heads. He also picked out class 1-A specifically, whose reactions carried a bit more levity for some reason. The reaction confused him for a moment before he realized he was still carrying Kacchan like a bride on her wedding night.

Oh well… at least it wasn't really a misunderstanding this time. Having her draped in his arms like this wasn't exactly _un_pleasant.

Izuku cleared his throat trying to regain his composure. "There's no danger," he stated, nodding towards the window where Iida still stood, stiffly gesturing outside like some sort of traffic control officer. "It's just the press trying to get in again. I suggest you continue to your homeroom teachers in an _orderly_ fashion. No need to crush your classmates…"

Luckily, as with most things in life, once the problem itself was identified, it could be addressed with a calm head. Order soon returned and the students proceeded through the marked exits without the stampeded mentality of moments earlier.

"_Deeekuuu_…" came an ominous growl from the girl in his hands.

Oops? Well… at least she'd have to wait for him to put her down before she could kick his ass.

He took his sweet time gliding them back to the ground, and it was totally worth it.

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"Oh my _gawd_ it was like sooo romantic!"

Invisalign and Pinky hadn't shut up about it since the previous day, and to add insult to injury, Katsumi had been stuck doing Present Mic's shitty English essay all night. That meant she'd had no real opportunity to _punish_ the nerd for pulling that shit yesterday. Katsumi bit out a curse as she felt an increasingly familiar heat creep onto her cheeks.

How the hell did just the _thought _of being cradled in his powerful arms make her light up like a fucking tomato?! Sure, it was in front of all the extras but with what had happened just two nights ago? Why was _this_ effecting her so much?!

"I wish Midoriya would sweep me off _my _feet."

"I'm not some shitty princess, Pinky!" she hissed at the girl.

Katsumi was about come over there and let the girl know what she _really _thought of her but halted at the pressure of a hand settling at her side. Thoughts of pummeling the pink one were shoved to the wayside in favor of dealing with the fucking _goosebumps_ that erupted over her flesh with a single _touch_ from the nerd.

Romance was fucking bullshit.

"Settle down, class…" Aizawa sighed through his seemingly never-ending exhaustion.

Katsumi inwardly grinned at the unnecessary intro. The extras were scared shitless of their sensei after that shit he pulled on the first day. Even she was hesitant to earn the man's ire.

"For today's basic hero training you'll have a trio of instructors. We'll be meeting All Might and one other at different location."

"Sensei! Where are we going?"

"Woohoo, a field trip already!"

Did this dumb motherfucker _really_ just say that? Did they learn _nothing_ from the first day?

"Correct, we'll be going to USJ."

Wait… what the _fuck?_

"He means the Unforseen Simulation Joint, Kacchan."

"Then why the fuck didn't he _say _that then?" she hissed back.

Katsumi froze as Aizawa rolled a single lazy eye in her direction, and for a second, she thought she might have to dodge a flying scarf. But he turned away with a yawn the next moment.

_Whew._

"Well researched, Midoriya, we'll be focusing on rescue drills for today, but the facility is a bit out of the way, so you're all taking a bus."

"Woah, it really _is_ a field trip."

"Rescue, huh… sounds like another rough day…"

"Cmon, guys! This is what being a hero's all about!"

Well, shitty hair had a point with that one. It was a sentiment Katsumi might not have taken seriously at a certain point in her life, but she'd long since adjusted her stance. She had a feeling the changes could be attributed solely to a certain hero nerd…

"Oh, right…" Aizawa clicked a handheld device, opening their hero gear lockers. "Some of you may elect to not wear your costumes as they'd be more of a hindrance than a help for rescue operations, but other than that, it's up to you…"

Katsumi had a feeling that first comment may have been aimed at her, but that was merely Aizawa's assumption. She'd long since refined her quirk to limit collateral damage.

"Who do you think the other teacher's gonna be?" Izuku asked with honest joy in his eyes.

She hid a smile in her sleeve, "How should I know, Deku?"

He was such a fuckin dork…

oooOo Izuku oOooo

They'd been in the UA bus for nearly twenty minutes, reminding Izuku of the epic view he'd glimpsed during the entrance exam. But seeing the sprawling plains passing them by in the windows of the luxurious travel bus gave them a more tangible measure of UA's scale.

It made him want to _fly._

He'd never been able to soar freely without a particular goal in mind. Restrictions of public quirk usage limited what he could do as a child. And whenever he _had _used it in the past, it had been for training or in more urgent situations.

But as a student at UA? Maybe he could get away with traveling if he ever got a day to himself. Izuku loved skating the streets of Musutafu for the sport of it, he had a feeling that exploring the skies would be just as captivating.

"Midoriya-kun."

Izuku abandoned his cloud watching, turning back to look over the seat in front of him. Asui had her elbows propped on the back of her seat while her hands cradled her face, which, in _his _opinion, was arguably rounder than Uraraka's.

Her eyes were a green so dark that in the right light they appeared black, wide and unblinking.

"What is it, Asui-san?"

"Call me Tsuyu, _k__ero." _

"R-right… Tsuyu, then."

"Spit it out, frog for brains," Katsumi said cuttingly from his side.

Izuku, acting on impulse, pinched her rear out of sight of the other students, earning a yelp and a deathly scowl for his trouble. Oh well, she'd just have to learn to play nice. Or at least _not_ be rude for no reason.

"It's fine, Midoriya, I tend to say what's on my mind as well."

W-wait, did she just—

"You've been quite outspoken about your fascination with our quirks, but we know next to nothing about yours," Tsuyu said, touching a finger to her lips in thought.

"Yeah! I've been totally curious too!" Kirishima cut in as he zipped over from his spot on the bench seats. "We've seen you toss a softball into the next prefecture, keep pace with the kid with _engines _in his calves… oh and that's right, _fly._ You can_ fly_, Midoriya."

"Not to mention you held up against Tokoyami's dark shadow quite effortlessly," Yaoyorozu said from the seat behind him. "Our backup strategy heavily relied on its power in such a favorable environment, but it seems we underestimated you after all, Midoriya-kun."

"I too admit myself curious to the source of Midoriya's power," Tokoyami added from across the aisle.

Izuku was slightly overwhelmed at all the sudden attention… Was this what Kacchan had dealt with for all those years?

Judging from the tiny smirk he caught out of the side of his vision, she was enjoying the swapped roles immensely.

"I've been meaning to ask…" Uraraka said from her seat beside Yaoyorozu, peering around the bus curiously. "Where is it?"

There was a brief pause before—

"Ah! You're right!" said Hagakure's disembodied voice. "Your quirk's gone, Midoriya! Can you make it disappear too?!"

"It's hardly that convenient," Izuku laughed. He pointed a single finger towards the roof of the bus, "it's above us."

"Wha—"

"Seriously?" Jiro, said lightly, clearly eavesdropping on the conversation.

Izuku shrugged, "It's more for convenience than anything. When I was a kid, quicksteel was around the size of a grapefruit."

"Aww, it must have been so _cute!"_

He was about to mention to Uraraka that it was an inanimate mass of metal but changed his mind a second later. In the early days of his youth, quicksteel indeed seemed to have a mind of its own, whizzing around every which way without any conscious decision on his part.

"Well… I'm not sure, but nowadays, I try to be considerate on the rare occasion I _do_ take public transportation."

Izuku willed his quirk down to where it was visible through the windows of the bus. It effortlessly kept up with the speed of the vehicle, humming through the air like a silver comet trailed by a double helix tail.

Those closest to the windows peered out in awe while others craned their necks to get a better view.

"_Showoff,_" Katsumi whispered by his side, but she was grinning even more widely by this point.

"Kuuah! I'm so freaking jealous, Midoriya!" Kirishima cried. "That sort of flashy quirk is awesome! You can totally do a buncha cool stuff with it!"

He stuck out his arm, which grew jagged and noticeably rock-like, but curiously still retained the same healthy skin tone. "My hardening's good in a fight, but it's so _boring," _he said realistically.

"That's right! Don't forget that heroes also have to worry about popular appeal! Aoyama said grandly. "My navel laser is both strong and cool, perfect for a pro."

"As long as you don't blow up your own stomach!" Ashido said, immediately crushing his bravado.

"Midoriya's a given, but if you want showy, it'd have to be Bakugo-chan or Todoroki, no?" Tsuyu said frankly.

Katsumi scowled at his side, but remarkably stayed silent. Izuku suppressed a grin, did she think he would pinch her again?"

"I used to think the same way," Izuku said with a hint of melancholy. "But over the years I've found my opinion to have changed slightly.

"Really? How so?" Yaoyorozu asked curiously. She seemed to hold a much higher opinion of him since they'd clashed briefly in battle training. Or maybe it was his supporting her in the briefing afterwards…

"Some quirks are obviously flashier than others," he started, surreptitiously brushing his knuckles against Katsumi's. "But I think a hero's personality mean's a lot more than their quirk. I can't help but believe that even someone with a quirk like Aizawa-sensei's could be a showboat given the right attitude. Though, whether they'd be able to manage the same level of subterfuge is a different matter."

Izuku laughed lightly as Katsumi scoffed, knowing she actually disagreed with him on this point. They'd argued over it constantly as kids.

Yaoyorozu was the first brave soul to question Katsumi's reaction. "You disagree, Bakugo-san?"

Katsumi eyed the taller girl with a sidelong glance, arms folded tightly under her chest. The cleavage exposed by her black and orange armour was accentuated slightly by the pose.

"Disagreeing is exaggerating a bit…" she finally bit out. "I just think that sometimes life gives you a shit hand, and you've got to work with what you got. A lot of the time, that leads to people resembling their quirks."

Several heads around the bus nodded thoughtfully.

Izuku grinned. "So _you'd _be short-fused, Todoroki's _con_fused, and what does that make _me_?"

"A fucking weirdo."

The bus erupted in laughter, and for once it was not out of cruelty, but mutual respect.

"Enough with all the _noise,_" Aizawa cut in abruptly. "We're here, look alive."

oooOoOoOooo

**"Welcome young zygotes!" **All Might said as they trailed one by one into the absolute _massive _structure.

To call it a building would be the mother of all understatements. The only reason the Unforseen Simulation Joint even _qualified_ as a single building was the arching dome that covered the entire area. The complex was divided into several different zones, each clearly meant to represent a different type of natural or man-made disaster.

"I thought he was joking about the USJ thing…" Ashido whispered.

He could understand the sentiment. Even from the entrance, Izuku could pick out both an artificial body of water, as well as a destroyed hillside village he assumed was meant to simulate a landslide. The orange glow of what looked like a flame radiated off in the distance, but that couldn't be right…

They wouldn't just set buildings on fire for the sake of a drill… would they?

All Might stood grandly at the top step of the long staircase that lead down into the main area of the simulation. But something seemed… _off_ about the legendary hero. His upward swooping bangs weren't as pristine as usual, and his already shadowed eyes appeared even more so…

Was he overworked? Tired? Could All Might even _get _tired?

Izuku shook off the idle thoughts, now wasn't the time to be worrying about such a thing. Besides, his real focus was on the new… well, not exactly _face_, but the presence of the pro-hero Thirteen was certainly a welcome surprise.

"Oh my god… it's Thirteen!" whispered Uraraka. She practically vibrated in place with her excitement.

"I'm guessing you're a fan?" Izuku smiled.

"Try _the biggest_ fan!" she enthused shamelessly.

**"Welcome to the Unforseen Simulation Joint! **All might said once they'd all gathered around the three pros. **"As much pride as I have in my ability to help those in need, when it comes to evacuation and rescue, my most esteemed colleague here truly has no equal! I'm sure you'll treat him with the respect he deserves."**

All Might bowed out of the way, giving the space hero the floor.

"You flatter me, senpai," Thirteen said, rubbing the back of his "head" in embarrassment. "Aizawa-senpai has informed me that some of you already have an idea of what the USJ is, but for those of you that don't I'll briefly explain."

The class collectively sat attentively, captivated by the rescue hero's polite demeanor.

"There's the flood zone, the landslide zone, the conflagration zone etc… Every disaster or accident you can imagine, and even some you might not. The USJ is a facility of my own design for the sole purpose of preparing the future generation of heroes for such catastrophes, and today you'll all get to experience it firsthand."

They clapped uproariously once they space suit clad hero had finished his explanation.

"Thank you," he said, holding his white-gloved hands up for silence, and earning it immediately. "But before we begin, I have one or two points to make. Well… maybe three, no… four... I've got lots of points!"

Izuku suppressed a snicker under his breath. For such a reliable hero, Thirteen was kind of an airhead when he wasn't in the zone. He couldn't help but make the comparison to the enthusiastic brunette standing to his left. Uraraka bounced on the balls of her feet as she stood enraptured by the space hero's speech.

"As I'm sure many of you are aware, my quirk is called **Black Hole, **and is capable of sucking in and destroying any material…"

Izuku repressed a shudder at the thought. Having the tether that granted him control of quicksteel cut by Aizawa's erasure was an experience he never wished to repeat… But Thirteen's quirk… Could the pro destroy Izuku's quirk altogether? Would there be any way to get it back?

Why were his sensei so _terrifying?_

"You've used it to save _thousands_ of people!" Uraraka said, unable to contain her excitement. But it was cut down a moment later.

"That's correct, however, without restraint, my power could easily dwarf the damage caused by the disasters I work to prevent. I could kill, and it would be_ effortless_.

They all remained silent, processing the critical lesson.

"I see that some of you have realized that you're in a similar situation, if not quite on the scale of my own quirk. In our super-powered society, the use of quirks is heavily restricted and monitored—"

"You got _that_ fuckin right," Katsumi whispered.

"—The system may seem like a stable one, but we must never forget that all it takes is one wrong move with an uncontrollable quirk for people to _die._" The hero paused, recollecting himself after broaching such a sensitive topic. "In Aizawa-senpai's standardized fitness test you established your physical limits, while in All Might's Battle training you gained experience using your quirk in a more practical combat situation.

He spread his arms widely, the vast expanse of the USJ serving as a backdrop to the space hero's silhouette. "This class, however, will show you a new perspective! You'll learn how to utilize your quirks to save lives! Your powers are not meant to inflict harm, and at the end of the day, being a hero is about helping others. I hope you leave here today with a better understanding of that fact. Thank you."

He gave a short little bow, and the class erupted into applause, Izuku clapping alongside the rest of his peers. Thirteen certainly had a way with words. You really got a sense of the maturity he held, a quality that was practically mandatory with such a destructive quirk at his disposal.

**"Wonderful! An excellent sentiment to live by, Thirteen-kun. Now—"**

All Might paused mid-sentence, his near-permanent smile dimming slightly as he peered around the USJ in concern.

Something was wrong. There was an odd distortion in the air, barely recognized by the sensory nature of his quicksteel. But it was still there and was growing stronger by the second.

"Kacchan, we need to get—"

But he never had a chance to finish his warning.

The vibration in the air reached a fever pitch, and a swirling vortex of pure darkness burst into existence over the central plaza of the USJ. The massless shadows licked at the ground around the central fountain before it seemed to solidify into a vaguely ovular shape, still swirling with ominous black and purple tendrils.

A slender, pale hand reached slowly through the void…

**AN: *plays villain alliance theme***


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: There's a minor addition to chapter 10 that addresses the customized shoes Izuku wears with his costume. There's really no need to go back and read it though. The only thing that's relevant is that the boots (which look like a streamlined version of his red sneakers,) have the sole removed, allowing direct skin contact to his quirk through the bottoms of his feet. He uses a small layer of quicksteel as a substitute sole when he's _not _flying.**

**For whatever reason, I'd forgotten to include that in the original chapter. Izuku _isn't _running around barefoot, though he probably could.**

**With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.**

**Leave a review or pm if you'd like to discuss my reasoning for the events of this chapter, I'm sure there will be some controversy :s**

**Chapter 12**

Fuck

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku'd had a _small_ taste of the danger heroes faced on a daily basis. The sludge villain from all those months ago had cemented that idea _firmly_ in his mind, relatively early in his hero career.

But as the slender man with _severed hands_ cradling his body stepped out of the swirling darkness with a small _army_ at his back, Izuku had a hunch that this situation may be of an entirely different scale.

They had a _warp_ quirk on their side for crying out loud!

"What's going on?" Kirishima asked, peering down at the swirling darkness. "I thought we were doing rescue training today?"

"Get back!" Aizawa shouted, throwing a hand out to block the redhead from taking another step forward. "This isn't an exercise…" He pulled a pair of slotted goggles up from under his scarf, snapping them into place over bloodshot eyes.

Even having a vague idea of their sensei's abilities, Izuku was still somewhat astonished at the change that overcame the normally lethargic hero. Dark brows furrowed in concentration as the man assessed the threat to his students.

The final villain stepped through the portal, a hulking monstrosity, standing several feet taller than its nearest companions. The contents of its grotesque, avian-like head were open to the elements. Even from the top of the stairs, its fleshy, unnaturally pink brain matter was visible.

The swirling void shimmered, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape, though it still writhed around the edges, form shadowy and indistinct.

"Eraserhead, Thirteen, and of course… The Symbol of Peace himself… It seems the information we secured was correct after all, Tomura-kun." The shadowy being's voice was deep and gravelly, though he spoke with an oddly cultured cadence that carried over the distance between the two groups.

The other villain in charge, Tomura if the warp quirk user's words were to be trusted, cracked a bone-chilling grin that was only partially obscured by the severed hand over his face.

"Hehehahahah! It's finally time, Kurogiri!" He turned to where they all stood huddled at the top of the stairs, "Congratulations, children! You're fortunate enough to witness a truly momentous occasion… _The death of your beloved Symbol of Peace!"_

"W-what?"

"He can't be serious, right?"

"We've been had," Aizawa cursed, his scarf uncoiling ominously.

**"The security breach? It makes sense, but to think it had all been an elaborate plot aimed at myself…"**

"But sensei!" Yaoyorozu said urgently. "Aren't there intruder sensors? They shouldn't have been able to get in without anyone knowing!"

"To be fair, they could be attacking the main campus as well…" Todoroki mused in his deep tenor. "But if this is an isolated attack, then it's got to be one of their quirks."

"Kaminari," Izuku said to the electric blonde boy. "Does your communicator have a signal?"

He shook his head with a frown after touching a hand to the device covering one ear.

All Might sported more of a grimace than a smile by this point.

**"Children, please follow every direction young Thirteen gives you. It seems you'll be the rescued rather than the rescuers today… Eraserhead—"**

"Yeah, yeah… I'll keep the fodder off your back…"

"W-wait, _wait_ up a second!" Mineta cried in fear. "You can't just _leave _us!"

"Didn't you fucking hear him, grape drink? They're doing the opposite," Katsumi hissed. Her eyes narrowed dangerously down onto the plaza.

Izuku knew she wanted to stay and fight, and he couldn't help but feel the same way. Leaving the heroes, no matter _who_ they were, to handle the situation alone left a bitter taste in his mouth. But whether they could hold their own against the villains or not, Izuku knew that their sensei would never let them endanger themselves, not so early into the school year.

But still…

"Eraserhead," Izuku sighed heavily. "I won't insult you by suggesting you couldn't handle these guys by yourself, but you have to know that they wouldn't come this far without a plan..." Izuku turned to All Might. "I'm sure people have tried to kill you before, but with how effective their plan has been up to this point…" He trailed off, letting them follow his train of thought for themselves.

**"I understand the sentiment, Midoriya-shonen!" ** The massive hand that All Might planted on Izuku's shoulder might have shattered the spine of a lesser human.** "But have no fear! As you've said yourself, this is _not_ the first time evildoers have come for my head." **

All Might paused, _glowering_ down at the amassed army.

**"But it _is_ the first time they've endangered my students in the process."**

Izuku had the odd urge to laugh despite the situation as several of the villains took a few unsteady steps back. His eyes only shot even wider as Aizawa sensei, though he was acting as Eraserhead in this moment, practically _flew _down the stairs towards the gathering of villains.

All Might followed, clearing the gap in a single leap, crashing to a stop before the amassed army.

"Come this way, everyone," Thirteen said with a level head. "Stay alert, we don't know if those in the plaza are the only villains here."

Izuku spared one final look, seeing Aizawa fling around the first wave of villains like ragdolls as All Might traded a few words with what looked like the leader.

"Looks like shitty eraser knows what he's doing, huh.."

Izuku turned to see Kacchan at his side, glaring down at their sensei. They may have been uncoordinated thugs, but seeing Aizawa singlehandedly isolate and dismantle the assembled villains by ones and twos with his personal style of martial arts was certainly a sight to see.

But those three villains in the back had Izuku hesitating to flee with his classmates. The hulking indigo-skinned monster in particular had his hair standing on end. The beastly villain stood so still Izuku might have mistaken for a statue were it not so grotesquely intimidating.

"Yoo, Midoriya, Bakugo! Let's go! Aizawa and All Might can handle it!"

Izuku turned to respond, only to narrow his eyes as that same distortion as before tingled his quirk.

"Kirishima! Get back!"

The swirling mass of darkness appeared nearly instantly before them. Two glowing yellow eyes came into being centered over a metallic collar-like chassis. Its form became vaguely humanoid once more.

Izuku noted the speed at which the villain teleported this time. It was so much faster than when he'd transported the army below. Was it because he was only moving himself? Or maybe the distance…

"Greetings," the being said conversationally in that same cultured tone. He loomed over their class and Thirteen ominously, "We are the league of villains. Forgive our audacity but… today, we've come here to UA, this bastion of heroism, to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace."

Katsumi had moved before he could tell her otherwise, blast-jumping to the perfect angle where she could unleash a blazing round-house directly at the being's collar. Kirishima, seeing the girl's assault had followed with a hardened right straight a moment later.

Izuku bit out a curse. There was of course merit in a surprise attack, but he didn't like the chances of being able to damage that intangible body…

Curiously, the villain visibly ducked her kick, with Kirishima's reckless punch passing harmlessly through its torso. _That_ he'd expected, but with the way the villain had purposefully avoided the first blow...

Maybe that collar was more than it seemed.

Izuku coiled a tendril of quicksteel around each of his classmates, attempting to yank them out of harm's way. But it was a fruitless effort as the void opened once more, swallowing the pair, along with a good portion of his quicksteel.

Izuku vaguely heard the shouts of the rest of his classmates as they too were consumed by the void, but his gaze was mostly locked on the villain's first two victims.

It may have been the prospect of fighting without his quirk at full power, or perhaps the defiant terror he'd caught at the last second in Kacchan's eyes. But Izuku wasn't quite ready to part ways just yet.

He leaped forward in the blink of an eye, ignoring the shouts of Thirteen and his classmates, and dove headfirst into the void after her.

oooOo Katumi oOooo

"Fucking _warp quirks_!" Katsumi cursed.

She unleashed a blistering explosion in a wide arc across the dilapidated rooftop. The wannabe villains scattered before her like the ants they were.

"Yoo! Bakugo-chan! You're totally badass and all, but I'm not fireproof over here!" the redheaded extra whined from where he'd landed after their unplanned travel through space.

"Fuck off, hair-for-brains," she said bitingly.

She really didn't have time to deal with weaklings right now. If this tomato-headed fucker hadn't gotten in her way earlier, she might have had a shot at taking out the villains' only way out of this pathetic assassination attempt.

_Kill _All Might? What a fucking joke.

Warp quirks by definition posed a regulation nightmare for obvious reasons. Even in a society of quirked individuals, being able to instantly appear at another location was both incredibly rare and immensely practical. It was an ability coveted and feared by various national governments around the world.

But in the hands of a villain organization?

Katsumi ducked a telegraphed swing from one of the more arrogant criminals.

Calling them villains at this point would be an insult to those who _actually_ posed a threat.

His fist, armoured by some sort of bootleg support gauntlet whistled over her head, missing by inches. Katsumi jabbed a clenched fist in his gut, cracking him over the head with an elbow a split second later.

The hooded criminal heaved from the power of her blow, crumpling to the ground a moment later.

She carelessly kicked his drooling body away from her, turning to the group of villains, staring them down like they weren't even worthy of polishing her fucking boots.

"Who's next then?" she grinned, sparking her palms threateningly.

_"So manly…"_

Katsumi twitched, leveling a glare promising pain at her redheaded classmate. She'd almost forgotten about the last time he'd called her that shit.

Did this idiot have a death wish? Unfortunately, the current situation didn't allow any time for pounding the redhead.

The villains charged as one this time, letting out a collective war cry of jumbled threats.

"Get her! It's just a fucking _girl_!"

"She can't beat _all_ of us!"

"Raaaah!"

"We'll show you what villains do to kids playin' hero!"

"Time to die, bitch!"

Why did this seem so _familiar_? Katsumi shook off the strange sense of déjà vu to spare her classmate a glance. It would be a pain to have to look after dead weight in a fight, but he seemed to have pulled himself together, standing ready to help.

As if she needed it.

Even without looking back to the charging villains Katsumi deftly sidestepped the first swing from the lead fighter, skipping out of the way of the powerful scaled tail that lashed out to follow.

Katsumi crouched low, swinging a crushing knee directly into the anthropomorphic alligator's solar plexus. The blow only stunned the thug for a moment, probably due to his mutant quirk granting somewhat thicker skin than most. But it had bought Katsumi enough time to be his undoing, a crackling fist to the face was enough to put him down permanently.

The whistling sound of an object speeding through the air was the only warning to the impending danger.

Katsumi blast jumped to dodge the speeding projectiles, her eyes snapping in mid air to the villain standing at the far end of the rooftop.

A ranged quirk? Or was it simply a support weapon? Either way, the projectiles had left deep gouges in the concrete rooftop. Katsumi couldn't quite pick out what was being fired, but avoiding them would probably be her best bet.

The sneering villain fired off another salvo which Katsumi parried with an explosion of sizable power. It was a bit of a waste of stamina, but until she knew what exactly she was dealing with, it was best to err on side of safety.

Her precaution was rendered unnecessary a moment later when her classmate charged the woman straight out. Katsumi's caustic warning died on her lips as the redhead tanked the next shots with barely a flinch, delivering a powerful haymaker to her head in the next moment.

Shit, maybe hardening wasn't as useless as she'd thought…

Now that the villain taking pot shots at her was taken care of, Katsumi was free to battle the rest unhindered.

Since they'd been deposited in the collapsed zone, the villains surrounding them had been mostly close-ranged fighters with the exception of the one they'd just taken out. Being limited to the rooftop _did_ slightly hamper her mobility, but _choosing_ to fight her in close quarters?

Were they _insane?_

Three fighters converged on her at once, attempting to catch her off balance as she landed from her dodge. But they didn't have a chance. They might as well have been hitting her with wet noodles for all the damage their blows did to her.

She parried them all the same, expertly weaving around the attacks as they came, finally putting all her experience brawling with Deku to practical use. The thugs barely posed a threat when compared to the nerd, but it wouldn't do to get into bad habits.

Seeing a slight opening in their combined attacks, Katsumi slipped in between the two leading villains before flipping over the shoulders of the third. She latched her legs around the villain's neck in a classic triangle choke before letting off an explosion of only concussive force and minor heat directly to his vulnerable head, knocking him out instantly.

Katsumi rolled away from the collapsing body, skipping away with a feather light step.

The downed villain's two companions attacked with renewed vigour, perhaps in some deluded sense of responsibility. Maybe they were trying to avenge their comrade or something… did villains even _have _a code of honor?

Katsumi hopped over a leg sweep attempted by the villain on the right, a guy with four arms who seemed to have at least _some_ background in martial arts. He predictably tried to grab her while she was airborne and unable to dodge.

A tetrabrachial fighter going for a grapple… how original…

It might have worked, had she been any ordinary student. However, assuming _Katsumi_ couldn't maneuver in mid air was the height of ignorance. It was where she _thrived._

Katsumi tucked her knees towards her chest, curling in tightly before unleashing an explosion-aided sideways donkey kick directly into the villain's exposed chest.

She _really_ hoped that snap she'd heard hadn't been any more than a fractured rib. Even under the threat of a villain attack, accidently killing someone would only bring more trouble down the line. It wouldn't do to become known for excessive violence before she even got her fucking license.

The force of the blast carried her in the opposite direction of the villain she was fighting. But unlike the thug that rolled to crumpled heap, Katsumi vaulted off a single arm, landing lightly on her feet.

She rushed the remaining villain with a running slide tackle. Not the most elegant of takedowns, but it proved particularly effective in grounding the tallest of the villains.

The man's legs seemed to be elongated and constructed of an odd metallic material. Given the proper opportunity to abuse the extra reach, such a simple quirk could pose a threat in a straight up kickboxing match.

But this was hardly a show match, and Katsumi was hardly a fair fighter.

As her sudden attack threw off the taller villain's unstable balance, she quickly leaped up level with the man's shoulders, delivering a staggering axe kick to the crest of his temple.

The villain jolted at the impact, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he toppled over backward with a heavy thud.

Katsumi landed lightly on the balls of her feet, primed and ready for more, but after a quick survey of the area, she realized the rest of the villains had actually run the fuck away.

Fucking _seriously?_ If this was the best these idiots could throw at her, then their plan was doomed before it could begin. She paced in agitation, the adrenaline from the fight, as disappointing as it was, still coursed through her veins, her palms still sparking dangerously.

Kirishima gaped at her like a fucking whale shark, as if she _wouldn't _dispose of the fodder as easily as she had.

The hell did he think she was?

"Uh… Bakugo-chan, that was totally cool, but don'tcha think we should look for the others? If we're still in the USJ then that means they are too. I'm worried about the guys who can't really fight for themselves." He paused, glancing around as if searching for something. "Aren't you worried about Midoriya? Didn't he jump in after us?"

Katsumi continued her pacing, stepping over the bodies of the unconscious villains without a second glance. "Don't need to, he's up there," she said, jerking a thumb up to where she knew Izuku circled overhead.

Kirishima followed the direction of her gesture, gazing up at the nerd as he grew closer to their specific rooftop.

"Shit… you're right, how'd you know he was up there? Wait… on second thought why didn't he come down and help us!" He said, frowning slightly.

"The fuck did you _just _say two seconds ago, hair-for-brains?"

The redhead paused briefly, eyes widening in realization just as Izuku dropped the last several meters to the roof, landing in a crouch.

Katsumi shoved the idiotic feelings that rose to her chest at the mere _sight _of the nerd to the wayside, in favor of the more immediate danger their classmates were all in.

"You two alright?" Izuku said without preamble. He eyed the surrounding villains before his gaze settled on Katsumi.

"Fine," she said lowly. "What's going on, nerd?"

He heaved a heavy sigh, "From what I could see up there, the warp quirk user, Kurogiri, I think his name was, sent most of us to different parts of the USJ. Though this place is bloody _huge _so I couldn't see everyone from just overhead. Were these guys were waiting for you when you dropped out of the portal?"

"Yeah, dude!" the shark-toothed extra cut in. "They totally had us surrounded, but Bakugo took em out like _nothing!_"

"Of course, I did!" she hissed. "They were weak as shit, and even if they weren't, they were all melee fighters."

"Hmmm, so they planned to split us up ahead of time, but had no knowledge of our own quirks?"

"Looks like it." She bit out.

"Um… Midoriya," Kirishima hedged uncertainly. "You didn't happen to see Thirteen-sensei while you were up there, did you? He's probably got his hands full since we rushed ahead like that."

"—we!?"

"None of this woulda happpeded if we'd just let him suck up that mist dude." Kirishima continued, heedless of her interruption. "As men, we gotta accept responsibility."

Katsumi finally took advantage of the pause in action to settle her beef with the redheaded idiot. "What the _fuck_ will it take to get it through your head, that I. Am not. A _man." _ She said venomously, punctuating each sentence with a harsh jab to his chest.

Familiar corded arms coiled around her waist, instantly calming her ire, not to mention nearly turning her into a puddle of goo.

"Now's not the time, Kacchan," Izuku whispered gently in her ear. "I couldn't see the main plaza from here," he said, turning to the boy she'd nearly forgotten by this point. The smoke from the conflagration zone is blocking my view.

The hardening quirk user visibly deflated at the nonconfimation.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, Kirishima. Kacchan would have gone for the takedown regardless of if you'd followed or not." Izuku turned to face her, "Anything you can tell me about the warp gate user?"

"I clipped something solid with my kick," she said, recalling the metallic clang her boot had made minutes earlier. "I could get him first try if I got another shot," she growled. The thought of that shitty warp villain getting the drop on her even slightly _really_ pissed her off.

"I'm gonna make sure everyone's alright," Izuku said determinedly. His skyboard hummed with power, the sound strangely comforting to Katsumi for reasons she had no time to ponder.

"I'll come with you!" Kirishima volunteered immediately, but Izuku was already shaking his head.

"You'll only slow me down…" Izuku said, though not unkindly. "You and Kacchan should head towards to the exit and see if you can reconnect with thirteen. I'll send anyone I can find over there so you can all get out together.

Katsumi met Izuku's piercing jade eyes for a single frozen moment before giving into the urge that had been tugging at her since he'd dropped out of the sky.

Heedless of the redhead watching curiously, Katsumi quickly closed the distance between her and Izuku, crushing her lips to his own. She grinned into his mouth as he rolled with her spur of the moment decision, deepening the kiss shortly before breaking off just as abruptly. Katsumi flushed as she was left practically whimpering in need.

"Be safe, Kacchan."

With a gust of wind, he was gone, carried away in a split second by his quirk.

The silence stretched on uncomfortably.

"Not a fucking word, hair for brains…"

"Y-yeah…"

oooOo Toshinori oOooo

All Might had never imagined he'd be fighting evildoers in the very building where his students were meant to _save _lives. But if there was one lesson he'd learned over his many years of heroing, it was to expect the unexpected.

He should have followed his own advice…

Yagi stared down the unnerving blue-haired young man, beginning to regret the hours he'd spent stopping petty crime that morning. He suppressed a shiver at the sight of the severed hands hanging limply off Tomura's body.

There was only so much experience could prepare you for.

The clashes, clangs and various other sounds of battle echoed over the wide plaza as Shouta fought off the amassed villains, but even from a glance it was apparent that they stood no match against the pro's superior speed and technique. In a less dire situation it would have been a pleasure to observe his colleague's battle prowess in person. It was an opportunity rarely offered to anyone with the way the man operated in the shadows.

But in this situation, it could _turn_ dire in an instant.

"_Is it finally time, sensei!?_" the man, Tomura, All Might vaguely remembered, spoke out loud, scratching viciously at his neck. A nervous habit from the looks of it, judging by the irritated patches of skin surrounding his collar.

All Might frowned. The title wedged an uncomfortable feeling into his gut, a twinge that was much different that the constant lancing pains of his injury. However, those pains were significantly more immediate, a relentless reminder of how little time he truly had left.

After a surprising a mount of villain attacks that morning, All Might was left with barely enough time to cover this planned afternoon lesson. He doubted he'd even have been able to last the whole period. But, with a stubborn streak to match his strength, All Might had insisted on coming anyway, intending to duck out of class in the last half hour or so.

But now…

He inwardly cursed his inability to ignore a person in need. It _was_ the basis of his career as a hero, but even _Yagi _had to admit it got him into some sticky situations.

However! Overcoming those situations was what made him who he was, limited to three hours a day or not!

The warp villain from earlier had already swirled away doing who knows _what _else to his students, but he had to trust their safety to young Thirteen for the time being. They were all pros, and despite the overwhelming _need_ he felt to protect his young proteges, they all had a job to do, and he was well aware of his.

All Might leveled an appropriate glare at the apparent leader of this so-called assassination attempt. **"Tomura, is it?" **he boomed across the distance between them. **"As dire as your actions have been so far, you've yet to actually hurt anyone, young man! It is not too late to cease this pointless violence."**

The man let out a sinister chuckle, as if his words were particular comical. "_Violence_ huh?!" His voice rose to a hysterical pitch. "Have a look over there!" he shouted, slashing a hand, his _own_ hand, through the air towards where Aizawa fought his minions. "That looks pretty _violent_ to me, _no?_ This is the cruel world of heroes and villains! The only difference between us is that _your_ violence is government sponsored!"

The villain took off with an inhuman burst of speed. However, it was not Yagi he rushed, but Aizawa while he was occupied with a trio of villains with minor speed quirks. Eraserhead had just managed to subdue them, exploiting a speedster's obvious weakness to being restrained, limiting their boosted mobility.

Tomura had timed the strike at a perfect moment of weakness, right as Erasure wore off and Aizawa was unable to use it for a few seconds. In another situation All Might have been impressed by the boy's deductive ability, breaking down the weakness in his colleague's quirk in seconds.

But this wasn't class, and Tomura was _not_ one of his students. If the villain thought he'd just stand by and let him blindside Aizawa so brazenly, then he truly didn't know who he was challenging.

All Might flashed after the speeding villain, appearing before him in the blink of an eye. He reached out a single massive hand, ready to knock out the boy as humanely as possible. A simple super-powered chop the back of the neck should have been enough.

He felt his shadowed eyes widen slightly as Tomura fluidly ducked around his attack.

What impressive agility! And from what he could tell, there was no overt application of a quirk. What a waste of obvious talent… All Might tracked the boy's movement through the air, adjusting for this new show of speed. How unfortunate that the boy would likely be locked away for life after this day, never to display such talent to the world again.

All Might swung a massive arm toward the dodging villain with a bit more applied speed than before, feeling the impact a moment later. Tomura was sent rocketing to the ground, spread eagle and back flattened against the unforgiving dirt. All Might quickly pinned the wheezing young man, primed to respond to any indication that he would make another threatening move.

"So t…this is your 'overwhelming strength,' Symbol of Peace..." Tomura coughed thickly, though the malice still bled through his labored breaths. "I _hate_ pro heroes. Ordinary villains simply don't stand a chance."

Malevolent crimson eyes peeked through scruffy bangs and grotesque hanging fingers causing that same unnerving sensation to return. "But you _miscalculated_," Tomura grinned up at him. "_I'm_ not the final boss!"

A hulking black mass _blurred_ past where All Might had Tomura pinned, moving with a speed something of that size _shouldn't _be capable of. His head snapped to watch, unable to respond in time as the demonic being collided with an unsuspecting Aizawa and sent him hurling into the wall of the central fountain. The underground hero's frame crashed into the wall; elegant concrete engravings pulverized from the force of impact. Jagged cracks expanded from the location, leaking trickles of water onto the shattered tiles of the plaza floor.

A lance of fear shot through Yagi's chest to join the more visceral side effects of his injury. Arms… weren't meant to bend that way.

However, his attention was once again drawn to the young man before him, only this time by an agonizing burning sensation. Tomura had snaked a single splayed hand to just barely brush the now-exposed skin of his lower thigh. The thin material of his hero suit had been disintegrated in an instant, his skin following soon after.

All Might leaped away from whatever was rendering his skin to dust, righteous fury coursing through his veins. His brief moment of leniency had possibly cost Aizawa several broken bones if not more. It was an oversight he went to immediately correct.

The dark abomination stalked after Shouta, swinging another massive fist overhead, mercilessly eager to see if there were any bones left unbroken. The guillotine of a blow crunched redundantly into Aizawa's downed figure, but the monster _clearly_ hadn't had enough, swinging back another arm to finish the job.

A burst of One for All, and All Might rocketed across the plaza

Fortunately, he crashed into the muscular villain in time to prevent any hits as devastating as the first, but Aizawa was still in a less than stellar condition. He sat hunched against the stone wall of the fountain, battered, bleeding and incapable of moving. Unconsciousness might have been a blessing at this point.

All Might stood locked fist to mighty fist with the villain who, by some terrifying means had come upon a strength that rivaled his own. His muscles bulged as he actually _struggled_ to overpower the monstrous being. All Might suppressed a hacking cough, feeling the familiar pangs that indicated overuse of his quirk, but soldiered on. Now was hardly the time to succumb to such a weakness. Not while his friend's lives were on the line.

Not while his _students_ were counting on him.

He gently, ever so gently drew from the shrinking well of power that was One for All. Even having yet to choose a successor, his body's capacity to handle the power was gradually dwindling. By this point his quirk was probably the _only_ thing keeping his body functioning in the first place, but he _couldn't _afford to hold back here.

All Might reared back a single trunk-like arm, the familiar power writhing merrily beneath the surface of his skin. All Might clenched his butt, torqued his core and back, and yelled with all his Might!

**"TEXAAASSSS SMAAAASH!"**

He swung a devastating fist directly into the abomination's stomach, bracing himself for the expected kickback.

But… it never came…

The attack had connected; he was sure of it! But other than a slight grunt at the impact, the monster gave no indication that he had been hit! It was almost if Yagi's strength had no effect!

The monster swung an inky black fist into his crippling injury with an uncanny accuracy, immediately earning a grimace of pain and lung wracking cough for its efforts.

Did this monstrosity know of his weakness? That attack was no accident… but _how_?

All Might leaped away to reassess the situation, being sure to remain between the crumpled form of Eraserhead and the hulking villain.

"Heheheheheahah! Surprised, All Might?" Tomura laughed hysterically as he shakily regained his footing. "I'd like to introduce you to Nomu, the _Anti_ Symbol of Peace! His shock absorption can stand up to even _your_ absurd strength!"

The beast charged with that same inhuman speed, pursuing All Might with an almost animalistic fury.

All Might met the charge head on, shouldering the blow before letting loose another powerful hook with his left, following up with an uppercut to the beast's jaw.

_Nothing._

Even the shock directly to the skull, a force that would even knock out some of the tougher villains he'd faced in his time, was shaken off with barely a flinch. The beast latched its arms around his torso in a steely grip, filling his nostrils with the cloying scent of rot and something else that reminded him of hospitals. All Might thrashed fruitlessly before Nomu turned, flinging him clear across the plaza.

All Might tumbled through the dirt, coming to a crashing halt against the sloping dome of the storm zone.

He'd admit that one actually hurt a bit.

All Might visibly struggled to his feet, thankful that none of his students were here to see him in such a sorry state. He paused to cough painfully into a fist, wiping away the expected stain of scarlet without a thought.

_Nomu_, huh? All Might peered with narrowed eyes at the monstrous villain, noting the gaping, beaklike maw lined with rows of jagged teeth, and its brain matter so obviously displayed for the for the world's viewing pleasure.

Its eyes were bulging and vacant, and All Might really couldn't see any sort of consciousness behind them. It was like some twisted science experiment gone wrong, and by this point he was debating with himself whether the beast was even _human_. As monstrous as some quirks made people appear, at the end of the day there was always the underlying thread of humanity.

But this abomination lacked even _that._

Where did he even _come _from?

No, that was irrelevant for the moment, he only needed to figure out how to _stop_ it.

He could wail into a shock-absorber all he wanted, but it wouldn't do anything besides kick up a lot of dust. It wasn't the first time he'd come across such a quirk before.

If _that's _how they wanted to play it, then let's see how it dealt with something a bit more creative!

All Might appeared behind the hulking monster in a burst of speed and latched his arms around its massive torso. If he couldn't beat it straight out, then burying it six feet under, in the most literal sense of the phrase, would probably be the next best thing!

With a mighty heave, All Might swung the gargantuan villain in a pendulous arc over his shoulder.

And directly into a swirling vortex of darkness.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

The closest zone to the one he'd been deposited in was the landslide simulation, and logically the first he flew to look over after leaving Kacchan and Kirishima.

He needn't have bothered.

All that was left of the once-earthy landslide zone was a frozen wasteland. The frosty blue-white hills sloped on for hundreds of meters, all clearly originating from a single point in the center of the mock-village.

As Izuku descended, crystalized statues adorning the landscape came into view, though on closer inspection he realized they were actually _people_ encased in that same jagged ice, their heads left uncovered, presumably so they wouldn't suffocate.

Was this… _Todoroki's_ work?

Izuku knew of the boy's quirk of course. But seeing the sheer scale of the destruction he could unleash with only his right side was humbling.

Izuku landed in a crouch, quicksteel revolving around his head, primed and ready to react to any sudden movements by the frozen villains. But they made no indication of aggression.

In fact, those closest to where he'd touched down appeared downright terrified at his appearance.

"H-hey man! We d-don't w-ant any trouble!" the closest of them shivered.

"Y-y-yeah! We g-give up! This was a a dumb idea anyway! Who the hell tries to take out All Might?!"

_Shit_, whatever Todoroki had done had put the fear of god into these guys… Though being frozen alive probably wasn't the most pleasant way to go.

Izuku willed a portion of quicksteel into a floating blade, leaving it humming against the man's jugular. "The boy that was here earlier, what happened to him!?"

"Woah woah woah, man! We said we give up, alright! What is it with you overpowered UA kids!?"

The quicksteel blade inched closer.

"He took off towards the plaza maybe two minutes ago! I swear!"

Izuku let the blade converge back into the main mass of his quirk.

"Appreciate the info," he grinned. "If you guys just _chill _here, I'm sure the police will find you eventually."

Their responding groans may have not had anything to do with the ice…

Izuku took to the sky once more.

So, Todoroki was already on his way to the plaza huh? He squinted through the windshear, actually having to look _up _at the next closest zone.

The true scale of the USJ complex was really put into perspective considering they'd managed to fit a miniature mountain range indoors… The massive simulation area sprawled all the way to the ceiling of the USJ, sloping back to level ground the closer one traveled towards the plaza.

But Izuku needed to go_ up._

The earthy hills of the landslide zone slowly became more rocky and jagged as Izuku wove through the increasingly larger cliffs.

It was as he slipped over a final ridge that a group of people came into view. Izuku dove, slicing towards the ground at a blistering pace, but as the figures grew larger, he came to realize that his classmates had once again proven their competence, dealing with the villains in the time it had taken him to reach them.

"Midoriya-san? What are you doing here?" Yaoyorozu said from her place under some sort of … blanket? Now that he had a closer look, it seemed Jiro was under there with her too.

Was she… _naked_? What the hell had gone down over here….

"_Wheyyyy_!"

"Pfftt Ahahahah!"

"Jiro-san this is hardly the time…"

Izuku blinked, waiting for his brain to reboot.

"Alright, someone's gonna have to fill me in. And Yaoyorozu… could you… put some clothes on? _Please." _ Izuku said averting his eyes.

_"Oh!"_ she gasped, flushing and pulling the cloth around her tightly. A fluorescent blue glow was visible briefly underneath before she removed the covering revealing her entire hero outfit, good as new.

"Handy," he commented frankly. Though to be fair, Momo's hero costume was hardly any less distracting. He may be firmly committed to Kacchan, but he'd have to be blind to not notice how beautiful some of the girls in his class were. Yaoyorozu in particular was quite the developed woman, and the scarlet leotard certainly didn't hurt her appeal.

Izuku smirked at the betrayed look Jiro shot him... It seems she was quite enjoying herself under there, but time was of the essence.

"I'm glad you guys are okay, well… actually, _are _you okay?" He said, eyeing Kaminari in particular as he roamed the rocky ground, shooting double thumbs up in random directions.

"He's fpfft-fine!" Jiro said, barely containing her snickers as the blonde let out another—

"_Wheyyy!"_

"He goes all loopy when he lets loose with his quirk, though now that I think about it, he never said how long this would last," she continued, fighting through her snickers.

Izuku nodded thoughtfully. "I can probably get to all the zones faster than most, so I'm just checking up on everyone I can find. I'd offer you a lift out, but I don't think I can take three…"

"It would probably be in out best interests for us three to stay together rather than risk slowing you down." Momo said, some of her embarrassment dying down. "As you can see, we are no longer in danger. Besides, it seems Kaminari-san will need a supervisor for the near future."

"Sounds good," Izuku said hopping onto his quicksteel and hovering at eye level. "I'll send anyone else I find to the entrance; we can meet up there. Hopefully the warp villain will be distracted enough to get out, but if not, we can figure it out then.

Both girls stood curiously wide-eyed, but a moment later it clicked. Momo had never seen him fly before, and Jiro had probably only seen it through a monitor.

Izuku didn't really put any stock in the way Katsumi had raved about how cool his quirk was in private, thinking it may have been her narcissism bleeding into her opinion of him. But judging from the girls' reactions, it may have had some merit to it.

"Stay safe!" he shouted, zipping off.

Any other time and Izuku would have been having the time of his life surfing through a fucking canyon, but now, speed was all the mattered. He leaned forward, near- horizontal over his board as he carved a path down the mountainside and straight into the smoky skyline of the conflagration zone.

If he didn't know any better, Izuku would have really believed a small town was suffering a major catastrophe below him. Pitch black smoke billowed out from the smoldering remains of unidentifiable structures. Some areas of the mock city were still visibly on fire, but everywhere he looked, destruction was the only constant.

Smoked clogged his lungs and brought stinging tears to his scrunched eyes.

He was practically riding blind by this point, but just as he was about abort any search for his classmates, at least in this zone, he came across the knocked-out bodies of several thuggish looking individuals. They all either wore filtration masks or possessed quirks that would allow them to survive in the noxious fumes of the surrounding fire. All except one, whose mask seemed to have been hastily removed, knocking his goggles askew.

Izuku quickly peered around as best he could through the hazy air, but relaxed a bit seeing none of his classmates among the fallen. It seemed that _one_ of them had been there, but like the rest, had taken care of themselves.

Pride in his classmates swelled in his chest, along with an increasingly urgent need for clean air.

It was time to move on.

Izuku hastily surged through the billowing smoke, cutting his own slipstream with his speed until he finally exited the allocated area for the conflagration zone.

Incredibly, the air quality immediately improved. How the engineers that worked on the USJ had managed _that,_ Izuku wasn't sure, but he had to give them props for authenticity. The burning in his lungs was certainly no illusion.

Izuku surged through the air into the next zone, the overwhelming abundance of blue that suddenly filled his vision almost as startling as the lack of smoke. _This _was apparently what UA's engineers had come up with for the flood zone.

But wasn't this going a bit overboard?! There was a difference between 'flood' and 'no land in the first place.'

A piercing wail echoed over the expanse of water just as Izuku zeroed in on the only spec of movement in the otherwise calm lake. A massive yacht floated around the center of the lake, though 'floated' was being a bit generous.

The ominous crack that bisected the hull of the ship probably meant the vessel had mere minutes of buoyancy left in it.

Izuku's eyes flew open at the sight of Tsu and Mineta stranded on the boat, surrounded by perhaps the largest gathering of villains he'd seen that day, disregarding the group amassed at the entrance of course.

They all clearly shared some sort of aquatic-themed ability, following the trend of all the previous zones. _This _aspect of the villains' plan clearly wasn't very polished. He'd already known that the groups of villains arranged throughout the USJ were selected based on their quirks, but now that he'd been to nearly every zone it was clear they'd given zero thought to even the _size_ of their groups.

He swooped down, coming to a stop in front of his two classmates. "Need a lift?"

"_Midoriyaaaa!"_ Mineta wailed, his eyes bulging out of his skull.

"Nice timing, _k__ero_." Tsuyu said with a composure that contradicted her situation.

"I can carry you if you can't balance well, but—"

"Yes, please."

"Oh, I get it!" Mineta burst out. "I try to cop a _little_ feel as my dying wish and I get flattened, but Midoriya over here just flexes stupid muscles and you just… arrghh!" he trailed off

Izuku wasn't quite sure what to make of the sudden outburst. "Uh… so shall we go?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." The diminutive boy sighed despondently.

Tsuyu hopped onto his skyboard which he widened appropriately, but the girl made almost zero use of the extra space, clinging tightly to his torso.

Izuku did he his best to ignore the way the frog-girl's curves pressed up against his body as he scooped up a still pouting Mineta, and and zipped off towards the closest bank.

The villains below almost immediately responded to the attempted escape.

A giant blade of rushing water sliced through his escape route, the slow-moving projectile proving more trouble than it normally would, burdened as he was by two extra bodies. He halted his escape, letting the attack fly past the nose of his board.

How unfortunate that such a powerful hydrokinesis quirk was being abused by a villain.

Izuku ducked the barrage of water bullets the villain fired after his first attack, materializing a shield of quicksteel to block what he couldn't avoid. Even hindered as he was, the superior maneuverability of his flight allowed them to escape with only minor scratches.

He slowed to a halt at the edge of the flood zone, turning to see if they'd been pursued. But once he and his fellow classmates had escaped past a certain distance, the villains had abandoned their chase.

Perhaps they'd been given specific instructions to remain in their area? Either way, they were safe for the moment

It seems that luck was on their side as Tokoyami and Kouda came dashing out of the Downpour zone, soaked, scraped and bruised to hell, but otherwise uninjured.

"Midoriya," Tokoyami called gravely. "I'm gladdened that you are unharmed, though I cannot say it comes as a surprise."

"Same to you," Izuku said, coming to a stop in front of the pair. He let down Mineta and Tsuyu, though the latter parted somewhat hesitantly. "You guys should take a longer way around to the entrance."

"You say that like you aren't coming with us, Midoriya-kun." Tsuyu fixed him with a stare.

"I've haven't run into Hagakure, Aoyama, or Ojiro yet. And I can stay out of reach if things get hairy." Izuku's eyes snapped to the sounds of destruction coming with increasing frequency from the main plaza. "Plus, something _really_ doesn't feel right about this." He stared down at his classmates, steadfast in a time of danger.

"I can't say leaving you behind feels correct either, Midoriya," Tokoyami said regretfully. "But you're not wrong that of all of us, you'd have the best chance of remaining unharmed."

"Be careful, _gero."_

Koda nodded wordlessly, but still managed to convey his support.

Izuku took off towards the plaza without another word, covering ground as fast as possible.

The fountain soon came into view the once massive army of villains scattered about haphazardly.

However, it was as Izuku's eyes came to rest on the unmoving form of Aizawa crumpled against the rocky ledge of the fountain that the true scope of their situation became apparent.

Izuku's stomach leaped to his throat as he took in the sight of All Might himself in possibly one of the most precarious situations, he'd ever faced. Though only the man himself could possibly know that for sure.

All Might was stuck bowed nearly in half, having attempted some kind of wrestling toss on the hulking beast from earlier. But Kurogiri's warp gate had once again proven how troubling such a power could be in the wrong hands.

He'd opened two adjacent portals to give the monster a torturous angle of attack on the Symbol of Peace. The monster had already latched its powerful arms around the hero's torso, its cruel, beak-like maw stretched into a grin as it dragged All Might into the depths of the void.

Izuku could pick out a familiar scarlet color seeping through the material of All Might's costume.

To think that the beast could make All Might _bleed_. Just how powerful _was _this thing!?

Izuku tucked low to his board, squeezing out as much speed as he could as he raced to his sensei's rescue.

It seemed he wasn't the only one, however, as a frosty trail of ice raced towards where All Might had been restrained. The jagged shards of ice rapidly encased both halves of the monster though the frost deliberate avoided touching the symbol of peace.

Izuku seamlessly hopped off his board while molding it straight into a coating over his forearms.

**"Midoriya-shonen! You should not be here! I-aghkkk!" **The man hacked violently, a spray of crimson speckling the ice below.

_That_ couldn't be good.

All Might had clearly seen better days… he was giving off so much heat he practically _steamed_. The sight was not particular encouraging to Izuku, All Might may be even more injured than he'd first thought.

"You're hardly in any condition to be picky, sensei!" Izuku shouted. He did his best not to cringe away from the gaping maw of the villain. Even crystalized into a frozen statue, the thing was terrifying, unnatural in a way Izuku had never seen or felt before.

Izuku molded a narrow blade of quicksteel, slashing across the tendons of the monster's wrists, flinching away from the spray of inhumanly dark ichor that spurted from the cut.

**"You don't understand, young—**

"You can scold me later!" With a great heave, Izuku tore All Might from the monster's weakened grip propping him over his shoulder in a single, fluid motion. He winced at the grimace that contorted the hero's face as he let out more heaving coughs with alarming frequency.

What kind of damage had the man taken to leave him in such a condition?

Had the monster _really_ done all this to him?

Izuku leaped away, grunting slightly at the massive weight of the number one hero, but otherwise able to lift him out of the way.

Another portal swirled into existence before him, the owner of the quirk materializing a moment later.

"Quite admirable, young hero, but do you _really _think we'd just let you waltz away with the guest of honor?"

"You don't got a _fucking _choice!"

_BOOM!_

Katsumi burst onto the scene with impeccable timing, flanking the warp villain with an explosive haymaker.

Having adjusted her aim from her previous attempt, the blow struck true, rattling Kurogiri's metallic collar with the impact. Katsumi let the momentum of her swing carry her fully over the warp villain's _clearly_ tangible body, pinning him to the floor with a palm full of fire.

"I fucking knew it, ya' bastard! You actually _tried_ to dodge before, right?!" Katsumi growled viciously. Her hand crackled threateningly at the slightest movement. "If we couldn't hit you at all, you wouldn't have bothered. All that fog's just a cheap trick to hide your weak spot, _hah_?"

"I thought we agreed to meet at the entrance, Kacchan?"

"Same to you, nerd," she said, not taking her eyes off her captive. "Just couldn't keep your nose out of things, huh?"

"I couldn't help myself," he grinned, propping All Might up against the main fountain, just a few meters away from where Aizawa lay unconscious. "Is Kirishima ok?"

"I left shitty hair with the rest of the extras," she said, grinding the villain's body brutally into the concrete as he flinched slightly.

Izuku grinned. "Guess you couldn't keep your nose out either…"

"_Somebody _had to save your ass."

"Is this _really_ the time?" Todoroki said, strolling over to where they stood with their backs to the fountain. He held a casual air, but the razor focus was obvious in the glare he leveled at the remaining villain. Frost ghosted from his breath, an indication that he'd recently used his quirk, not that Izuku needed any more evidence than the frozen villain towering over the rest of them.

Tomura's distinct wheezy drawl silenced them all. "Not only have you disabled our transport, but you're all at full health! Kurogiri, you just _had_ to go and get caught by the other team…"

He stood _much_ to casually for the situation he was in. Even with All Might's mysterious ailment, the villain still stood alone, all major pieces in his twisted chess match put out of commission for the time being.

So why was he so calm?

A hysterical giggle slowly bubbled out of Tomura's throat. "Today's kids really _are_ something… Our league of villains should be ashamed!"

"This guy's unhinged…" Izuku said lightly.

"Don't fucking move," Katsumi hissed at the warp villain. "One twitch and I'll blow you to fucking hell!"

"Nomu, _kill the explosive brat. _We need our escape route back._"_

The shattering of ice could be heard all throughout the plaza, as the beastly villain, Nomu, tore itself out of its frigid prison. The monster thrashed about, heedless of how frostbitten flesh crumbled away from its torso, falling to the ground with hiss.

A few horrifying seconds later and Nomu stood before them, the majority of its right arm and leg missing completely.

Until it started to _heal. _

Writhing tendrils of muscle and skin knitted itself together at a blistering pace.

The whole process really _was_ grotesquely fascinating_. _Izuku'd never even _heard _of a regenerative quirk so powerful, and if the thing was strong enough to go toe to toe with _All Might _of all heroes… What exactly _was _this thing?

**"What's this!? I thought his quirk was shock absorption?" **All Might gasped, confirming Izuku's earlier fears. The Symbol of Peace struggled to regain his footing, burdened by wounds that clearly surpassed the cuts and bruises that were visible on the surface.

"I don't remember saying that's _all _he can do!" Tomura giggled. "This is _Hyper Regeneration. _Nomu is a living sandbag bioengineered to withstand _everything_ you throw at it!_"_

Honestly, Izuku was more alarmed by its _speed._

Nomu _rocketed_ towards Katsumi in a vicious charge, steadfastly following its master's homicidal command.

All Might lurched by his side as if moving to block the blow, but was overcome by another round of coughs, falling to one knee.

Luckily, Izuku had instinctively moved to protect her as well, barely appearing in time to tank the blow with a quicksteel coated cross guard.

The impact _rattled_ his frame, and for a moment Izuku thought he might have lost consciousness.

He was _launched_ halfway across the plaza, barely keeping upright as he skidded to a halt with a gasp of air. His ears rung from the impact, and Izuku could have sworn his forearm was smoking slightly… It certainly _felt_ like it was on fire.

"_Hoh?" _Tomura growled dangerously._ "_That's the Anti-Symbol-of-Peace there, kid… What kinda powerups are they giving these UA brats!?"

Todoroki sent another massive wave of ice racing after Nomu as it came to a stop, but it was no longer locked in place by a warp gate, leaving it free to dodge away with an earthshaking leap. Nomu landed in a crouch, leveling a single, bulging eye on Izuku, clearly frustrated at being denied its kill.

The beast lunged, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, but luckily, he was prepared this time.

Izuku slipped through the grasping arms of the massive villain, abusing the slight advantage he may have had in agility.

But even that _slight_ advantage hardly guaranteed his safety.

Each thunderous swing from the monster could potentially end him in a moment, and even with a coating of quicksteel, its glancing blows had Izuku's bones creaking under the impact.

So instead, Izuku _weaved_ through the swipes, redirecting, rather than blocking completely, and lashed out with quicksteel-enhanced strikes in the brief opportunity between attacks.

Nomu was largely unaffected, but after seeing the beast regrow limbs in _seconds_, that wasn't exactly surprising.

Izuku darted away, trying to buy as much time as possible for All Might to recover from whatever was currently ailing him.

Nomu blitzed after him like an indigo _demon._

He slid to a stop, squaring his stance and facing the charging villain, resolution glinting in his eye. He couldn't keep this up, not against this _being_ of seemingly limitless strength and stamina. If even punches from All Might couldn't make it flinch, then attempting the same would only be a waste of time.

The key had to be _suppression. _ All Might may have been interrupted in his first attempt at restraining the beast, but the hero's logic was perfectly sound.

The majority of Izuku's Quicksteel seeped off his arms to form a metallic shield, a clear invitation for Nomu to test its strength. But as the rampaging beast slammed into the quicksteel dome with a bone-chilling roar, it was not the sturdy surface it expected, but a pliable, sludge-like consistency.

Izuku ducked out of the way as Nomu sank into his quicksteel, latching tendrils of the material around the beast and solidifying them a moment later. The Nomu's powerful body bulged as it tried to muscle its way of newly formed metallic cage. Izuku hung on for dear life, the stress from restraining such an overwhelming power with quicksteel making itself known with a splitting headache.

"Todoroki, can you freeze it again?!" he shouted.

Nomu, as if vaguely understanding his shout, bucked like a raging bull in attempt to dislodge its captor, but barring the throbbing pain in his head, it looked like his quicksteel would hold strong for the moment.

"_Deku! _watch o—"

"_As if I'd let you…" _

A vicelike grip latched onto Izuku's left forearm, instantly disintegrating the thin layer of quicksteel that remained .

The flesh of his wrist followed shortly after.

"AAAaaaaaaaaaagghhh!" the scream tore from his lips unconsciously, echoing across the plaza.

It was like someone had poured lava over his wrist such was the blinding, _blistering, _all-consuming agony that engulfed his arm.

Tomura had apparently avoided attention in the chaos of the skirmish, hiding his presence until the perfect moment.

The villain'd slipped into his blind spot the minute Izuku focused all his attention on restraining Nomu, locking himself in place. And now…

The flesh of his wrist _crumbled._

It _hurt._

He'd never felt so absolutely _debilitated_ by an injury before, and it wouldn't _stop._

Izuku's eyes snapped to Tomura's other hand as it loomed towards his exposed neck, retaining enough awareness to lurch away from his grasping fingers.

The motion sent another spike of agony lancing up his arm, breaking the last of his conscious control over quicksteel. Nomu _thrashed_ out of his weakened prison.

Todoroki's ice had reached their position, beginning to encase Nomu's monsterous feet, but Izuku knew it was too late.

In a moment that seemed to stretch on endlessly, Izuku met a single, scarlet eye peeking through the digits of Tomura's disturbing face mask.

…

Would _his_ hand join the many that adorned the villain's body?

…

The searing agony of his flesh disintegrating snapped him back to reality.

The Nomu turned, its beak-like jaws drooling viciously, as jagged shards of ice lanced mercilessly through its legs.

It wasn't enough.

Nomu swung a massive fist, swatting away the annoyance that had _dared_ try to capture it. Izuku mustered a halfhearted block with his right arm, but he might as well have guarded with a piece of paper for all the good it did.

All the force that he'd been negating with his quicksteel was unleashed on his unprotected body, pulverizing the bones of his arm and sending him hurdling through the air. Izuku _skipped_ over the tiles of the plaza floor, coming rolling to a halt in a cloud of dust.

_Tomura hadn't let go…_

A desperate cry that wasn't his own echoed in Izuku's failing senses.

His vision blurred as an iconic muscular silhouette slowly paced into view, spidery cracks branching out along the ground from each pendulous step.

Izuku's world went black.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: I figured with the cliffhanger last chapter I might as well give an early chapter this week. It will most likely be several weeks before the next chapter is released since this ends the current 'arc' of this story. **

**The reception of the last chapter was understandably controversial. I can understand some of the complaints, while others I wholeheartedly disagree with. But either way I figured having the whole picture with this chapter would be the best situation for everyone. If those of you who mentioned dropping the story still feel that way after this chapter, then I wish you the best. I'm sorry my story didn't quite hold up to your expectations.**

**There are minor changes with phrasing in the previous chapter to make some of the more ambiguous action easier to follow. **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 13**

The Torch

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"De…ku?"

He wasn't moving…

"Deku! G-get the fuck up, you damn nerd!"

He wasn't listening. He _always_ listened.

"Hehehahahah! Anything to save a comrade, eh _All Might_!?"

Katsumi's eyes snapped to the source of the taunt.

"What might have happened to my Nomu if I'd let that kid get off his special move?! _Hah_?! But violence in the name of saving others is admirable? Isn't it!? _Hero?"_

_It was him._

_He_ did this.

All Might was standing between the disgusting onyx-skinned creature and Izuku's crumpled form.

Tomura was wide open.

Katsumi swung an explosive fist into Kurogiri's collar, ignoring the villain's howl of pain as she crushed the armor into a misshapen hunk of metal. Hopefully that would delay his teleportation for a few seconds.

A moment was all she'd need.

Katsumi exploded across the distance in a blink, getting a vicious thrill at the spike of fear in the blue-haired freak's eyes. She swung a blazing palm of fire at the villain, but he ducked with a speed she'd only seen from Izuku and other pros.

But that was no matter, she'd expected that much from a villain of his caliber. The first strike was a feint, a decoy for the knee that slammed up into the freak's lowered head.

The explosion she'd added from the bottom of her foot gave it that extra burst of speed needed to catch him off guard.

Katsumi's knee cracked into where his nose was probably hidden under that fucking _hand_ mask of his.

The crunch of snapping bones was music to her ears. Though whether it was the sound of his nose breaking or the hands themselves she wasn't sure. Nor did she care.

Katsumi didn't let up her assault, slipping past the bony hand of the villain as it grasped desperately. She slammed two fiery jabs, one after the other into his exposed left flank.

That time she heard the telltale snap of ribs caving under her blows.

_Good_, he was almost dead then…

Her right palm lit up with a screeching white flame, swinging in a wide arc before slamming past Tomura's already faltering guard.

That was the first time Katsumi had felt human flesh truly melt away under the power of her quirk.

She couldn't find it in herself to care.

By all accounts the attack _should_ have ended him. But once again Katsumi was reminded of the headache-inducing reality of dealing with a warp-quirk.

_"Fuck!" _She should have fucking stayed on his ass. Glancing back to the last place she'd seen Kurogiri, Katsumi's eyes widened at the sight of the villain's mangled collar encased completely in ice.

So icy-hot _wasn't _dropping the ball after all… Kurogiri probably couldn't move with that collar restrained as it was, but that apparently didn't stop him from warping _others._

The inky dark purple vortex swallowed Tomura, preventing Katsumi from dealing any further blows, but the damage was already done.

Sure enough, when Tomura swirled back into existence across the plaza, he was not on his feet, but curled in on himself in agony. He clamped a hand over his other arm, clearly burned and bloodied even from the distance between them.

"How's that for violence, fucker?" Katsumi hissed spitefully, but her eyes were already searching out Izuku where he lay guarded by All Might. He was still frighteningly still, and _way_ too close to the two titans about to do battle.

"These _fucking_ UA brats?!" Tomura wailed pitifully. "Look at that right there! Heroes and villains both _thrive _on violence, but we're still categorized! You're good, _we're_ evil. That's how it is _right?!_"

Tomura was working himself into a frenzy, though Katsumi hoped it was a delirium brought on by the pain.

"Symbol of Peace? Hah! In the end you're just a tool for violence, made to keep us down! But violence only breeds more violence, I'll show th—"

**"I'll stop you right there, young man. The idealistic criminals you're imitating so poorly have a different sort of fire in their eyes." **All Might stared down the villain. **"But you're just a petulant child, aren't you?"**

**…**

"Hoh? You saw right through me huh?" Tomura's righteous act drained away, "_Nomu, _It's time to complete the objective you were designed for! _Kill_ the symbol of peace!" A cruel grin stretched over his features.

Once we've done that, we can take our time with the kids."

Katsumi hopped back towards their group. "Icy-Hot, get Deku away from All Might and bird-brain!"

"Fine."

She didn't even bother to respond to the dismissive tone, there were more important matters to deal with.

Todoroki's ice crawled along the ground to where Izuku lay unconscious. A platform molded underneath his body, before dragging him along the already created ice to where they stood with Aizawa.

Katsumi let out a heavy breath of relief at the sight of quicksteel floating alongside his unconscious body, only for her blood to run cold at the bloody stump of what was once his left hand.

"D-deku?!" Was this a _joke_?! All the time's he'd been there to protect her and she lets that fucking man-child take his _hand?! _ The first time _he_ needed _her _help?

_Worthless._

"If All Might can hold the Nomu in place again, we can—"

**"No! You two need to keep an eye on Aizawa and Midoriya-shonen," **All Might cut over Icy-hot before he'd even finished. **"I'll take care of things here."**

"Oh _yeah!? _Where the _fuck_ was that attitude before Deku got h-hurt!? _Huh_? All Might?" Her voice cracked with despair.

Katsumi didn't know whether to be satisfied or not at the violent flinch the hero gave in response.

**"Quite right, young Bakugo, it pains me that you've all had to see me in such a pitiful state," **He said, ginning grimly. **"Please allow me to make up for such unforgivable failures! Everything will be ok!" **he turned to face Nomu.

**"Why? Because I Am… The Symbol of Peace!"**

Her senses weren't quite as fine-tuned as Izuku's, but even _Katsumi_ could feel the change in the air.

All Might _leaped_, rocking the floor of the USJ with his thunderous power. But when the Nomu met the hero midway with its own devastating charge, Katsumi was given the first taste of exactly how far away the number one spot _truely_ was. She ducked low over Izuku's downed form as shockwaves buffeted them even where they huddled meters away from the two clashing titans.

A second later the light from above began to be partially obscured, initially scaring the shit out her. But as she identified it as quicksteel slowly forming into a protective dome over their little group she let out a breath of relief.

"K-Kacchan? W-what'd I miss?" he groaned deliriously

She _really _had to hold herself back from smacking him silly. "S-shut the fuck up! Can you make a tourniquet with your quirk, nerd?"

"A tourn...? For wh—Oh… _OW._"

Another round of deafening shockwaves thundered against the dome Izuku had managed to erect over their small group. Katsumi winced at the obvious distress it was causing him even to use his quirk _this_ much. Her scowl deepened at the grunt of pain he let out as he stemmed the bleeding of his left arm with his own quirk.

**"It's 'absorbtion,' not 'negation'! So he must have a limit, no?!" **All Might's voice echoed grandly throughout the USJ, even eclipsing the howling wind. **"Built to counter me you say!? Made to withstand everything I've got!?"**

Katsumi felt very small in that moment, hunkered down behind Deku's quicksteel while a practical _warzone_ raged on the other side. The explosions reached a fever pitch, every devastating blow delivered kicking up dust and debris and sending it careening over the plaza every which way.

She didn't fear for her safety though, Izuku would probably _die _before letting his barrier drop. In fact, as a sizable chunk of concrete rung against his shield, Katsumi was beginning to think that outcome was probably more likely than anything at this point.

That she _did_ fear.

**"A hero's always ready to smash through trouble!" **The shockwaves paused for a single moment.

**"Tell me, Villain! Do you know the meaning of… Plus…**

**ULTRA!" **

It was perhaps the greatest force she'd born witness to in her short life. The impact from All Might's final strike was something she could _feel_ in the deepest parts of her being. The kickback, even hunkered down behind a barrier as she was, ironically, was like a _punch_ to the chest.

The shattering of ice filled Katsumi's ears as the shockwave shook the ground of the USJ. That was probably Kurogiri being freed, not that he could do anything to save Nomu from its fate at this point.

The fact that All Might's city-leveling blows were still considered punches at all was the real joke here.

But as the Nomu was launched like a rocket through the distant ceiling of the USJ, Katsumi couldn't help but acknowledge All Might's overwhelming strength.

And more importantly, the Symbol of Peace had taken out the greatest threat to their lives, leaving only the broken pair of villains standing before them.

Izuku's shield folded in on itself, returning to its default form, though the thick band of metal he'd capped around the stump of his wrist stayed firmly in place.

They _had _to finish this up, they didn't have _time. _Izuku was down for the count and every second wasted would only worsen the lasting damage from his injuries…

"Y-you _cheated_!" Tomura burst out, once the shock of seeing his 'Anti Symbol' get launched to fuckin mars. "You were supposed to be _weakened! _But I can see now that that was a _lie_… we're completely out-matched. How _dare_ you do that to my Nomu…"

**"Well? Coming to get me?!"** All Might stood in a cloud of billowing white smoke, looking bruised and battered himself, but as triumphant as ever. **"What happened to clearing the game? If you can take me, then bring it on!"**

"Calm yourself, Shigaraki Tomura. It's apparent that All Might will _not _simply walk off the damage dealt by Nomu, besides, my chassis has been damaged leaving my quirk unstable. With you injured and the teachers and police most likely a few minutes away it would be prudent to escape while we are still able…" Kurogiri trailed off, letting t the connections himself. The words had a visible effect on the younger villain's hysteria.

"Right…right, right. Yes... right, okay. We escape then… All Might's injured, we can always kill him another day… Like a save point…"

Or maybe he was just fucking insane the whole time…

The decision was taken out of the villain's hands a moment later as the doors to the USJ Burst open with an echoing explosion. The rapid-fire cracks of gunfire carried across the plaza as bullets rained down on the villains below, slicing through the exposed flesh of Tomura's already injured shoulder. Any further shots were warped away by his comrade, but it was clear the villain wouldn't be moving that arm any time soon.

Or preferably, _ever._

"Just in time," Izuku grunted out from beneath her.

"Enjoy your precious _peace_ while it lasts, _heroes_," Tomura cried. He reached down to scoop something off the ground.

Katsumi's stomach turned once she'd realized what it was.

"I don't usually wear the living, but for _you_," he leveled a bloodshot crimson eye towards Izuku. "I'll make an exception."

Tomura slipped into the waning portal, taking his prize along with him.

Katsumi glanced back to Izuku, unsure for once about what exactly she should say to someone who'd just had their hand stolen. But he was still once more, apparently having passed out from the blood loss.

"Hey! All Might! We gotta get Deku out of here! The fuck are you _waiting for?!"_

But All Might stayed in the crater caused by his final punch, heaving great lungfuls of air. Clouds of unnaturally white smoke still billowed around his form obscuring the injuries she'd seen previously.

Something was wrong.

Katsumi hopped into the shallow crater, sliding down the side on the balls of her feet.

**"No! Young Bakugo, stay back!"**

"We don't have fucking _time_ for that, All Might! Deku's missing a fucking _hand, _what are you w—All... Might?"

This had to be a joke.

All Might, at least she _thought _it was All Might, stood before her. Streamlined, Olympian musculature gave way to a frail, hunched form. The steaming intensified as the once-grand hero practically _deflated _before her eyes.

W-what the hell was up with that puny body?! All Might?!

**"Young Bakug-ackgh" **All Might was wracked by hacking coughs, spewing blood over a fisted hand.

The implications of such a sight raced through her mind, but one thing was obvious. _No one _could know about this.

Katsumi leveled an explosion to the dusty ground, kicking up another cloud of dust up around the pair, obscuring the crater from view. "I don't know what that pathetic body of yours is, All Might," she growled, meeting the hero's widening eyes. "But it'd be bad if anyone found out about this, right? I don't have time for this shit. Deku's hurt and I don't have time to baby your ass."

Katsumi leaped out of the crater, landing in a crouch next to Izuku's still form. She didn't want to risk moving him any more than they'd had to, just in case there was any damage to his spine.

"What was that all about?" Icy-hot asked emotionlessly.

"Don't fucking worry about it."

oooOoOoOooo

The teachers had stuck Izuku into an ambulance and she'd nearly blasted the paramedic across the road when he'd tried to block her from following. Curiously, it was a plainly dressed detective that had granted her access. All it took was him laying a gentle hand on the man's shoulder and a whispered word and the paramedic had immediately backed off.

The hell was that all about anyway?

Katsumi hopped into back of the ambulance, racing to the utterly still form of her best friend and… lover? She'd barely had any time to figure that shit out before he went and got himself fucking chopped up.

Protecting _her._

Katsumi's vision blurred, the unfamiliar sting of tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

She let out a gasp as warm fingers clasped around her own, though the grip was frighteningly weak for someone she knew to be so strong.

"Don't cry, Kacchan," he said softly.

"Who's fucking crying, nerd?!" she bit out hoarsely.

He let out a weak chuckle, "Everyone okay?"

"As if you have any time to worry about anyone else!"

"So yes, then?"

Katsumi's mind immediately shot to the emaciated form of the number one hero.

"…Yeah." This was hardly the time to drop a bomb like _that_ on someone in such an unstable condition. But until she got an explanation from the man himself…

"I'm glad," he sighed, closing his eyes as the painkillers the paramedics gave him started kicking in.

"That _fucker_ took your _hand_, Deku! The fuck do you have to be glad about?!" She shouted, consciously restraining herself from smacking him along with her words.

"I'm sure I'll figure something out…" he said. The quicksteel floating above their head rippled before a section of it separated from the main mass, flexing into reasonable replication of a human hand.

It gave her a fucking thumbs up.

The bark of laughter she gave in response may have bordered hysterical, but at least she knew _he_ wasn't all broken up about it.

Now she just needed to get her _own _head on straight.

oooOoOoOooo

They'd made good time back to the main campus of UA and the automated robots that helped run the school transported Izuku to Recovery girl's office as soon as they'd arrived.

So now, Katsumi stood to one side, feeling utterly useless as the 'youthful' heroine examined her best friend.

"Hmm, oh dear… several cracked ribs… severe lacerations to the back and right flank…" She mused clinically as if this _wasn't_ the most harrowing event Katsumi'd ever experienced. "Minor concussion… it's a miracle the boy's spine is still intact…"

"And… h-his hand!?" Katsumi finally bit out, chewing on the tip of her thumb in agitation.

Recovery girl leveled her with a grave look that left a pit in the center of her stomach. "My quirk lets me speed of the body's natural healing, dearie. You did well to slow the bleeding as much as you did, even if you'd recovered the hand itself, I doubt I'd be able to do anything about it.

"_Dammit!" _Katsumi roared, slamming a flaming fist into the nearest wall, scorching the ugly yellow paint with smoking embers.

"I understand you're upset, but this is as close to a hospital as UA's going to get. So if you can't control yourself I expect you to leave." Recovery Girl didn't yell, but her tone allowed for zero protest, and Katsumi once again returned to her nervous pacing.

"Good," the diminutive nurse said, returning to her work. "I've healed the most immediate injuries, but he needs to recover naturally for a day or so. After he regains a bit of stamina, I'll be able to heal the rest. Disregarding his hand of course… Whether he wants to continue hero work after all this is up to—"

"You fucking joking?! Deku? Quit being a hero from something like _this?" _This time the laughter was _undoubtedly_ hysterical, echoing off the walls of the small infirmary. Katsumi leveled a narrowed glare on the woman who'd _dared_ suggest such a thing. "This is _nothing._"

It didn't _feel_ like nothing_…_

**"I can't help but agree, young Bakugo!" **

The sunken, frail face of the symbol of peace's emaciated form was less of a shock the second time. But seeing the man up close like this, without the billowing smoke obscuring his entire frame was startling in other ways.

_This_ was the strongest person in existence?! Was he just a shrunken man playing hero this _whole time?_

"I'm sure you have questions, young Bakugo," he said, following Recovery girl's orders and dragging himself over to the cot next to Izuku. "However, we'd best wait for young Midoriya to awaken. This conversation concern's _him _more than anyone.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku's senses were foggy as he returned to the world of the living. He vaguely recalled the way Uraraka had described the effects of recovery girl's quirk. This seemed to be something of a similar nature.

Though, judging by the throbbing pain centered around his left wrist, his injuries hadn't been healed completely. Luckily, that all-consuming pain that had wracked his body while the wound was fresh was blessedly absent. The current throbbing was a mere irritant in comparison.

At least through this pain he could _think._

The USJ had obviously been a clusterfuck from the start, but until he'd been dismembered and ragdolled by Tomura and his Nomu, only Aizawa had been seriously injured.

Had their Aizawa gotten medical attention in time?

All Might had beaten Nomu, _right?_

That sounded right. Izuku vaguely recalled fading in and of consciousness at several points after the fact. The details however, eluded him.

Kacchan was safe, he remembered that much. But the rest of their class? And All Might hadn't looked so good when they'd bailed him out of Kurogiri's warp gate. The man obviously had internal bleeding at the _least. _He'd gone blow for blow with that Nomu even _after_ that point.

_That_ couldn't have been too healthy.

Any further thought on the subject would be pointless speculation. Izuku had a feeling it was about time for him to face the aftermath of that disastrous training exercise.

His eyelids were like iron doors with how hard they were to pry open, but eventually he managed.

The first thing that registered was the spiky strands of ash blonde hair preventing him from seeing anything at all. But at his vision focused, and Katsumi's dozing face came into view, the warmth that blanketed his form started to make more and more sense.

She snoozed comfortably, her features softening noticeably without that ever-present scowl of hers in place.

Just as he'd had the thought, she twitched, nose scrunching at whatever specter plagued her dreams. Considering recent events, it wasn't hard to guess what.

Katsumi snuggled closer to his side, burrowing her nose into the crook of his neck. She inhaled deeply, as if committing his scent to memory before relaxing once more. Despite his injuries Izuku still couldn't help but shiver at the attention of his girlfriend even if it was unconscious.

After so long pining after her, it was so very refreshing to have his feelings returned even if it was an unconscious reaction from the girl. Even coming out of the most harrowing experience of his short life, Kacchan still managed to fill him with an overwhelming sense of belonging.

Was there something _wrong_ with him? This couldn't be a _natural _reaction, right? He'd lost a _hand _for fuck's sake, should he really be concerning himself with the giddy feelings of a new relationship?

Oh well… who could really decide what's right and wrong when it came to emotions.

Izuku yearned for some news about his classmates, but he also knew his best friend. This was most likely the first bit of sleep she'd gotten since…

How long _had _it been since the USJ? It couldn't have been more than a day or two judging from the freshness of his injuries. But the rosy light peeking through the window of recovery girl's infirmary indicated it was either dawn or dusk. The lack of activity around the room pointed towards the former of the two.

His eyes returned to Katsumi. She'd shifted so her ashy blonde hair obscured her face completely. It really _was_ getting pretty long lately. A few more inches and she'd look even more like her mother than she already did. Even now, she'd probably be able to pull it back into a short ponytail.

As the image appeared in his mind, Izuku found that he quite liked the idea…

"I can practically _hear_ your brain working, nerd." The vibration of Katsumi's whispered words tickled his neck, bringing a smile to his lips. She squirmed impossibly closer, though clearly kept his recent injuries in mind.

"I love you."

Katsumi stiffened.

_Oops._

He certainly hadn't meant to say that out loud, but he couldn't quite bring himself to regret the words.

"You makin fun of me, nerd?" she seemed to curl in on herself.

What? Not exactly the reaction he was expecting. He wouldn't blame her if she'd been a bit weirded out by his moment of honesty. But she hadn't shown any adverse reactions to the _idea_, not even shifting her body from its place by his side.

What was this aura of self-doubt?

It was an emotion he hadn't felt from Kacchan in years.

"I may have no filter… but I wouldn't joke about something like that…"

She remained silent.

"Do you not believe me?"

Dexterous fingertips trailed underneath the blanket down his left forearm pausing slightly as she reached the bandaged area. Katsumi ever so gently traced the rough cloth careful to apply as little pressure as possible. He'd never seen her be so delicate before…

She gasped lightly as her fingers dropped over the edge of his wrist, burying herself even further into his side.

_Oh._

"It wasn't yo—"

"It was!"

He paused for a moment, unsure of how to respond. If Kacchan was dead set in her belief of guilt, there wasn't much he could say to change her mind.

Izuku ran through the events of the previous day in his mind as best he could remember. Some of the details eluded him, but he'd be hard-pressed to forget blocking the first hit from that nomu. It was probably the reason why Katsumi was even blaming herself in the first place.

"I moved initially because I care for you." Izuku said frankly. A pair of crimson irises peeked out through pale blonde bangs. They were so much more emotive and full of life than he remembered Tomura's beings, despite the similar color.

To compare them beyond that would be insulting to Kacchan.

"Let's consider the situation from an objective point of view. You had already restrained the warp gate, Kurogiri, right?"

She frowned in thought. "What about it…"

"Their plan to kill All Might hinged on abusing the warp gate to cut him in half, so keeping Kurogiri out of commission was our highest priority at that point. Especially with All Might so beat up from whatever happened before we got there."

Katsumi shifted uncomfortably, but otherwise made no other comment.

"Like I said before, I moved to block Nomu because I care about you." He grinned as she flushed under the cover of her bangs. "But it was still the correct decision for that specific situation. My mistake was trying to lock down something so much stronger me with other enemies around."

Echoes of the searing pain caused by Tomura's insidious quirk lanced up his arm at the thought. They faded after a moment, but the crease in his brow remained.

"We were outmatched, blaming yourself for my mistake is just dumb."

…

"Whatever…" she whispered. "D-did you really mean it… what you said before?"

A hot flush rushed to his face. She wasn't letting him get away with this huh?

"Y-yeah."

"Mmm. Same." Her eyes were hidden again, but that was ok.

Everything was ok.

oooOoOoOooo

**"I am… **going to be quiet so I don't get yelled at!"

"That was still too loud, Toshinori! You _really _don't know the meaning of restraint, do you?!"

While Recovery girl berated the number one hero, Izuku tried to come to terms that he'd just learned All Might's _name._

Had they _meant _to give him that information? He wasn't exactly pretending to be asleep, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect him to be unaware with the ordeal he'd just been through.

But a moment later when they both turned to address him there was no surprise or alarm in their eyes.

"Midoriya-shonen! It is good to see you up about once more!"

Izuku paused, frowning down at Katsumi as she stiffened in his arms. She had fixed All Might with a suspicious stare the minute he'd walked into the room. It gave Izuku the impression that he was missing something.

He turned back to the symbol of Peace. "Not exactly _up_," he shrugged. "But I'm getting there. Hardly worthy of a hospital visit from the symbol of peace himself, though."

"Nonsense, my boy. First and foremost, my priority is to my… students, though I find myself falling short on that expectation lately!" The man said, shifting uncomfortably.

"Kacchan?" She still hadn't let up with her stare. It was starting to become seriously concerning. "Everything ok?"

"I don't know," she said slowly. "_Is_ everything ok?" her gaze hadn't shifted, directing the question at the Symbol of peace himself.

All Might sighed, then he began to _steam._

"I can't say I blame you for being suspicious, young Bakugo, especially considering the consequences of my moment of weakness."

A glance to Katsumi's unchanging expression told him that All Might's shrinking form was nothing new to the girl. And indeed even to Izuku, the steam looked vaguely familiar. It had been _pouring_ off the hero when he'd pulled him away from Nomu.

Along with the bloody hacking coughs that had wracked his frame.

The white vapor billowed around the number one hero's body until the shadowed pits of his eyes were the only thing visible.

"That's twice now that you've both suffered for my own shortcomings, and for that I offer my sincerest apologies." The voice was raspy, though it still carried that grand undertone that was so iconic to All Might's persona.

But when the smoke cleared, it was not the massive figure of the symbol of peace that stood before them.

Was he dreaming? Or perhaps a _nightmare_?

_This _was the man standing between their current peace and a society saturated with villainy?

The eyes were perhaps the most recognizable feature of the man before him. They were sunken and shadowed, with those same baby-blue irises that Izuku could recognize anywhere.

This… was undeniably All Might.

But his body…

Powerful, unyielding muscle became a sickly emaciated frame. The suit he wore, custom made for the man's titanic size, hung off his frame like a circus tent. The dual upward sweeping bangs as well as the rest of his normally immaculately styled hairdo hung lankly around his angular face.

Izuku could feel his own eyes watering slightly at the sight before him. Beyond what this meant for society as a whole, All Might was a role model who Izuku had aspired to emulate since even _before_ he'd gotten his quirk. To see him taken so low…

"You think an _apology_, is gonna make up fo—"

"_Kacchan_!" She fell silent, cowed by the sheer rarity of Izuku raising his voice at her. He'd apologize later, but the flash of unbridled self-revulsion that had appeared in All Might's eyes in that moment had spurred him to act.

"No, Midoriya-shonen. She's right to blame me for your most recent injury. If only I'd had just a bit more time… Petty crimes and joyriders," he spat self-deprecatingly. "Was I just trying to fool myself?"

Izuku's arm twinged painfully at the reminder. He was sure to keep the discomfort off of his features, but it seemed that recovery girl's eyes were still quite sharp in her old age.

"All-right, deary, time to peel yourself away from my patient, he's due for another round of treatment." Katsumi grumbled petulantly but otherwise followed the diminutive heroine's instructions. She knew better than to argue with the woman that bossed All Might around.

Recovery girl tapped her way over to his bedside, dropping her tiny clipboard at the edge. She hopped up onto a conveniently placed stool before her lips extended to comical proportions, connecting with the crest of his forehead a moment later.

The lancing pain he'd been compartmentalizing the whole time immediately began to trickle away. The expected exhaustion came to replace it almost immediately afterwards, an indication of his own body's temporarily boosted healing factor working to repair the damaged tissue around the stump of his left wrist.

Izuku pulled the bandaged appendage out from under his blanket, inspecting it under the light of Recovery girl's infirmary. The bandages had clearly been changed since the nurse's first round of quirk treatment. They were pristine, giving no indication of the gruesome injury that they'd held just a day earlier. Izuku prodded lightly at the bandages, finding the site still a bit tender to the touch, but obviously well on the way to healing, at least superficially.

Katsumi visibly winced at the sight of his missing hand, and All Might's emaciated expression wasn't much better.

"I was only half-joking before, Kacchan." Izuku willed a small mass of quicksteel to separate from the main orb floating idly over their heads. "It'll obviously take some getting used to, but there's something to be said about muscle memory…"

The smaller mass _shuddered _as Izuku meticulously sculpted a replica of his left hand, drawing reference from the thousands of times he'd coated the real thing with his quirk. Satisfied with the construct, Izuku plunged his wrist into quicksteel prosthetic, latching tendrils of the material so they ran in spidery strands almost up to his elbow.

Moving it without real flesh beneath would clearly take practice. But when the alternative was fighting at half power…

The decision was obvious.

"W-will that truly be a suitable substitute, Midoriya-shonen?" The genuine _hope_ that came to All Might's expression in that moment was incredibly flattering. To think that the symbol of peace himself cared so much about his situation, even if it may have been out of a sense of guilt.

"It won't be the same," Izuku said frankly. "But a side effect of my quirk makes me hyperaware of outside factors effecting quicksteel itself. It won't be exactly the same, but my sense of touch may be even _more _sensitive once I get used to it." He paused, slowly reaching with a metallic hand to take Katsumi's where it rested just out of reach. "The warmth of another's touch is still well within reach"

"Too bad it's cold as shit for _me_…" Katsumi's soft tone didn't reflect the harshness of her words at all. Despite her complaint, her own hand shook as she wrapped it around his in what _would_ have been a bone crushing grip. A tiny little smile pierced that despair that had been so dominant in her expression from the moment he woke up.

**"What astounding resolve, Midoriya-shonen!" **All Might shouted, buffing up into the form Izuku knew so well. **"It seems my decision** **for a successor was the correct one!"**

Izuku untangled his metallic digits from Katsumi's, turning his full attention to the man before him. "I'm sorry… what was that?"

**"Indeed, Midoriya-sho—gaghrk" **

Izuku jerked an arm out to help him, realizing a second later that the motion was pointless. Izuku recalled All Might coughing in a similar way when he fought the Nomu… But it wasn't like he could do anything to help the man.

"All Might… a-are you alright?"

"_Quite_ alright, young man," he said, settling into a chair by Izuku's bedside. What normally would have collapsed under the man's massive weight, now fit his frame perfectly. How did that work anyway? Did the mass just disappear? All Might's hero form clearly wasn't just for show, the gaping hole in the USJ roof was a testament to _that. _

Here was yet another quirk that breaks every law of physics without a thought.

Katsumi sat on the edge of his cot, arms crossed and staring down All Might as she waited for the answers he'd clearly promised.

Recovery girl snatched her clipboard off his bedside table, then tapped her way over to the doorway. "Don't take too long now, Toshinori, this is an infirmary not your secret clubhouse."

"Many thanks! We'll be out in a jiffy!"

Izuku grinned. Even with that frail body, All Might's personality hadn't diminished in the slightest.

His smile fell as the man pulled up his shirt, exposing a grotesque scar twisting across the majority of his lower torso.

Izuku didn't quite know where to start. "W-what the…"

"_Fuck." _Katsumi cursed.

"Not a pretty sight, eh?" All Might said. "Five years ago, an… enemy did this to me."

Izuku met Katsumi's eyes as they darted to his own. "That was… the Toxic Chainsaw…" Izuku mused, turning back to All Might. "But that can't be right…"

All Might snapped a finger towards Izuku. "You've got a good eye, kid, and you're right. The Saw was nothing but a murderer. Cruel, brutal, and terrifying in his own right, but in terms of power he didn't really pose a threat to someone like me."

"We'd have heard about some shit like that, or at least the nerd over here would…" Katsumi said.

"Correct, Bakugo-chan, this particular battle was never made public, by my request of course. I was dealt a near-lethal blow, losing my stomach and most of my respiratory system." All Might dropped his shirt to cover the wound. "I've wasted away because of the aftereffects of all the surgeries, and I'm stuck in this weakened state for all but three hours a day, though that time is probably significantly lower now..." He sighed, "A symbol of peace who saves people with a smile…"

"Undaunted by evil…" Izuku said, the words ghosting from his lips without a thought. Of _course,_ All Might couldn't let anyone know about this. But then… "Why tell me?"

All Might leaned back in his chair, propping his head up with his hands. "The easy answer would be that you already caught a glimpse of my weakened form, but Bakugo-chan here is more guilty of that than you are, my boy. You have my thanks for the cover yesterday, by the way." He said, grinning at Katsumi.

She scowled. "Whatever, All Might, it'd be a shit situation all around if people found out, right?"

"Erm, right… You know, heroes have to have **appeal as well!" **All Might said, buffing up and flexing his lats. **"You've obviously got the skill, young Bakugo, but you might want to curb that mouth a bit."**

She fixed him with narrowed eyes. "The fuck's wrong with the way I talk?"

_Gods damn it, Kacchan…_

Though Izuku had to admit seeing the musclebound hero looking so flummoxed was amusing to say the least. "So… what's the real answer then? And shouldn't you be saving your time if you're limited to three hours a day?"

**"Right you are, Midoriya-shonen! **Normally I'd have approached you alone to discuss such a sensitive topic… but everyone deserves someone in their corner."

Izuku frowned, glancing over at Katsumi. "I… don't follow."

"Midoriya-kun, Bakugo-chan, I've had my eye on the both of you since I met you all those months ago. You both have the potential to be top heroes straight out of school, but when it comes to inspiring society as a whole… It is you, Midoriya-shonen, that I deem worthy of inheriting my power.

…

Katsumi wedged a pinky into her ear, exaggeratingly twisting it back and forth as if cleaning her ear out. "I'm sorry, All Might, run that shit past me again. I thought you said you were gonna _give away_ your power. As if that were even fucking possible."

She'd obviously heard the man correctly the first time, but Izuku was in the same state of disbelief. The idea of passing on a quirk was something that had never been documented before. However, the source of All Might's near-unmatched strength had always been even more of a mystery...

"Haahaahaah!" All Might laughed grandly. "You shoulda seen the look on both of your faces!"

A tick sprouted on Katsumi's forehead. "_You're_ the one spouting some fuckin' fantasy about inheriting fucking quirks, All Might!"

"Fantastic? You betcha! But that makes it no less real, young Bakugo! The media always tries to guess my power, assuming it's super-strength, or some kind of boosting quirk—"

"There go half of _my _theories…"

"But I've never confirmed or denied any of their guesses, always dodging the question with some kind of joke or inspirational one liner."

"Yeah, we know, it's fucking _annoying."_

Izuku grinned. He and Katsumi had spent many afternoons after a hard day's training discussing this very topic. The way the symbol of peace always happened to divert attention away from his quirk was always particularly infuriating for the two of them. Having it confirmed that it was purposeful only inflamed his explosive girlfriend further.

"My apologies, Bakugo-chan, but I'm sure you could imagine the potential rioting if it got out that The Nation's Symbol of Peace wasn't a natural born hero…"

He… wasn't wrong.

All Might rose to his feet. Despite the hero's emaciated frame, he still stood a good few inches taller than Izuku himself and absolutely _towered _over Katsumi. Even frail and broken, All Might still cut a particularly striking figure. He spread his arms grandly, mimicking a pose he'd taken countless times in his buff form. "But my quirk… was passed down to me like the Olympic torch!"

"Passed… down?"

"Correct! The ability to cultivate and _transfer_ power, _that_ is the truth behind my mysterious quirk." All Might stuck out a hand as if physically grasping it. "Its name…. **_One for All."_**

Izuku's eyes widened, shooting over to Katsumi's. "Kacchan! It's a _stockpiler! _One like I've never even _heard of _before, but _still. _This—this changes _everything!"_

Izuku hopped up out of bed, feeling restless and unwilling to stay sitting with such monumental news being delivered. "Disregarding the common side effects of overuse, stockpiling quirks are usually gated by either a maximum amount of whatever is being gathered… or a particularly rare fuel source…"

He paused his pacing, peering at All Might curiously. He ignored the slightly overwhelmed look on his idol's face for the moment, his curiosity suitably rustled. "But it's so versatile… Speed, power, vitality, dexterity…" He began ticking off each point with his quicksteel prosthetic, slowly getting used to the more complex contortions of the human hand. "What could be stockpiled that would grant all that and more?"

Katsumi rested a hand on his shoulder, pulling him to sit beside her on the cot. She flushed lightly. "Sit down, nerd, you'll wear a hole in the floor." Katsumi fixed All Might with a glare. "Besides, you're not asking the right questions…"

"A-and what would those be, Bakugo-chan?" All Might was clearly unprepared for the sudden interrogation. Izuku didn't really blame him for that. He knew better than most how overwhelming Katsumi and he could be at times. But both of them at the same time? It might have been too much for even the Symbol of Peace to handle…

"If this fuckery isn't some wild fever dream, then why hasn't there ever been a hero like you before, hah?"

She was right… Generations of heroes had come and gone ever since quirks became the norm instead of the exception. Every crop had its gems, those that stood out among the ordinary. But there had _never_ been an undisputed number one like All Might before… Unless...

"I see you've figured it out a bit, Midoriya-shonen."

Katsumi snapped her head back and forth between the two of them.

"_Well!?"_

All Might chuckled lightly. "You're being deceived by the frail form you see before you. One for All is indeed a formidable power on its own, but the previous holders all used it in their own way. _My way _just happened to rely on years of backbreaking effort! Make no mistake, the holder of One for All and the pillar of society are not mutually inclusive statuses. The former was gifted to me _because_ of my ambition to become the latter."

Izuku slumped back into the bed with a gust of air. This was… too much to take in at once. "But… why me?" He glanced at Katsumi. "I'm sure there are better—"

"There aren't." She said, cutting him off immediately. Her hair shadowed her eyes, but a bloodthirsty grin slowly crept across her lips. "Let's be honest, I'm pretty fuckin badass—"

"—and humble."

"—but you have this charisma about you… You make m-people want to follow you." Her eyes darted implicatively at All Might. "Remind you of someone?"

"Funny, I don't recall ever being as popular as you say…" Izuku said, frowning over at her as they sat shoulder to shoulder.

"Not the fuckin extras, nerd!" Katsumi looked away with a pout. "Haven't you noticed? Ever since we got to UA, _everyone's_ wanted a piece of you…"

_"Hoh? _So our friends aren't extras anymore, Kacchan?"

"Fuck off, you know what I meant." By this point she'd gotten all up in his face, specks of gold visible in crimson eyes. They narrowed dangerously and Izuku barely felt the puff of her breath on his face.

"You're gonna take this _damn_ power." Katsumi grinned, "You'll need it if you even want a _chance _of taking the number one spot from _me._"

"Uh… Midoriya-shonen?"

Izuku flinched slightly at the sound of All Might's voice, while Katsumi grinned at him, pulling away. He turned back to the symbol of peace, squaring his shoulders and fixing him with an unblinking stare. "I'll do it."

**"That's what I like to hear, young man!" **All might shouted, buffing up and smiling grandly. ** "It seems that you too have friends you can rely on, no?" **

Izuku grinned at the reminder of the first time he'd come face to face with the hero. His battle with the sludge villain seemed so long ago now…

**"One for All requires a suitable vessel to be safely passed on, but you've passed that threshold long ago have you not?"**

Izuku frowned. "I'm sure _you'd _have a better idea than I would, All Might." He paused, glancing down at the metallic construct replacing his left hand. "Can you give me some time? I'd rather not have to get used to this hand and another ability simultaneously…"

**"That would be most prudent, Midoriya-shonen! I'd intended to wait out your recovery anyways, but I should have known you'd be eager to be back at the grindstone!" **He stuck out a massive fist. **"However, we don't have much time to spare! Plus, there's _that_ coming up..."**

oooOo—

"No, no, no! Don't just drop some shit like that and then cut the scene! What the f—"

**End of Part II**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Long time no see! I had most of this written for a while, but figured I might as well post a chapter just to let you know I'm writing again. Updates will follow no fixed schedule since I'm juggling a couple stories at the moment. I've found it helps me stay fresh and interested in writing. That being said, know that chapters are coming even if they aren't as fast as before.**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

**Unnatural Healing**

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Katsumi sighed, doing her best to tune out the rest of the class 1A's idle chatter. Deku had gotten an extra day off to recover from his injuries, with the unfortunate side effect of leaving her alone with nothing to act as a buffer between her and the rest of her... _peers_. Just _thinking_ the word gave her heartburn... He'd left her to the fuckin' wolves.

As if he actually _needed_ the time off anyways… Katsumi could understand the reasoning behind the allowance, it made sense on paper, after all. Normally it could take _years_ to adjust to the loss of a limb. But Izuku was _anything_ but normal, not to mention possessed a quirk that had proven able to cover for the weakness better than anything Katsumi had ever hoped for. She just _knew _he'd spend the day training with that quicksteel prosthetic of his.

The rest of Katsumi's class, however, were all expected in their seats the first thing the next day.

The truth behind All Might's ominous proclamation the previous day had been obvious once she and Deku'd had a chance to count back the days. But with everything that had happened since they'd started attending UA, it wasn't surprising that she'd forgotten such a detail.

Of _course_ it was the fuckin' Sports Festival.

Every damn year, the nerd dragged her in front of a TV to watch UA's infamous annual event.

Well… dragged might be a bit of an exaggeration. Seeing some of the hero world's up and coming heroes before they went pro was always good for a bit of entertainment. But Izuku in particular was always obnoxiously invested in the event.

To think that they'd all be fighting in it themselves in just a few weeks…

"Everyone! Morning homeroom's about to begin! It is imperative that we all remain vigilant in the absence of our beloved class rep! Please take your seats!"

"Dude, you're the only one _not _sitting..."

A low growl built in Katsumi's throat. How Deku tolerated that clown's absurdity was anyone's guess, but Katsumi could at least appreciate the respect Engines showed her… boyfriend in his absence.

Aizawa strolled through the doorway as if he _wasn't_ covered head to toe in bandages. Katsumi flinched at the reminder that they'd all been fortunate enough to never even fight the monstrous creature head on. Only All Might had the power to subdue the beast.

And soon enough, so would Deku…

Aizawa ignored the various comments about his health bringing up the subject of her thoughts a moment later, regaling them all with a brief history of the UA sports festival in his dull monotone.

The rest of 1-A'd apparently had a similar lapse in memory as she and Deku. They'd all been so distracted by the blistering pace of life since the beginning of the year, such a normally momentous event had gone overlooked.

Though, how some of these idiots could think It'd be canceled for something a routine as a villain attack she had no fucking clue. Did this purple midget live under a _rock _before coming here? It was practically _the _event when it came to amateur competition.

"The nations top heroes will all be watching, right?" Yaoyozoro commented. "They'll be there as scouts!"

The blonde one leaned forward in his seat, "They'll be looking hire us as sidekicks after we graduate! That's how it's done, right?!"

Katsumi scoffed derisively. "Career extras like you'll be there for more than just a _few _years, Pikachu."

Jiro snorted loudly. "Ahah, she's got you pegged! The legendary sidekick, Jamming Whey!"

Kaminari made a show of his crocodile tears as several others joined in on the laughter.

Aizawa's drawl cut through the chaos. "Naturally, you'll gain valuable experience and popularity if you're picked up by a big-name hero. But your time is limited, show the pros what you're made up here, and you'll make futures for yourselves."

Katsumi's eyes darted to some of the more skilled members of the class.

"The Sports festival only occurs once a year," Aizawa continued. "This is the first of three chances, if you're hoping to become a pro, this is an opportunity you can't afford to miss.

oooOoOoOooo

"Hey, Katsumi-chan._ Pssst!_ Katsumi-chan"

"What is it, round face?"

Uraraka pouted, her rosy cheeks appearing even more prominent with the motion. "You ever gonna call me Uraraka? No! _Ochako_, I'm gonna get you to call me Ochako if it's the last thing I do!"

Katsumi grinned inwardly, tossing her notes into her schoolbag and flinging it haphazardly over her shoulders. "Keep telling yourself that, round face."

Katsumi'd could admit that she'd grown a bit fond of the bubbly brunette. But it would take more than tolerating her to earn _that _kind of recognition.

"How's Izuku-kun been doing? Recovery girl hasn't let any of us visit him while he was recovering…"

Katsumi sighed. Wasn't _that_ a loaded question… Deku was probably fine, but Katsumi couldn't help but hesitate to say so. She had a feeling it had more to do with her own guilt than Izuku's opinion on the matter.

He'd made his opinion on the matter clear, but words could only do so much. "He's—"

"W-what's this?!"

An absolutely _massive_ crowd of students filled the hallway outside class 1-A. Most of them staring judgingly at she and Uraraka, being the _lucky_ two to come out first.

Katsumi _really _didn't have time for this shit.

Engines beep-booped his way over to the doorway. "Do you fellow scholars have some sort of business with our class?"

"Yeah! What are you doing blocking our doorway? I won't let you hold us hostage!" Grape drink shouted.

Katsumi stared down at her tiny classmate wondering, not for the first time, how he'd managed to get out of the USJ alive… Why couldn't fucking Tomura have taken _his_ hand…

"They're under the idiotic impression that we were _lucky_ to be ambushed by villains." Katsumi hissed. "It makes us _interesting_, and with the sports festival coming up, well… it makes us a _target._"

Her eyes darted between some of the gathered students, none of them able to meet her gaze for more than a split second.

_What a joke_.

Fodder, all of them…

The rest of class 1-A had gathered at the door by this point, the students in the back peeking over those in the front to see all the commotion.

"Jokes on you though," Katsumi said airily. She tilted her head, a feral grin splitting her lips, "You shoulda been watching out for me _before_ all this villain bullshit. Congratulations! Now you know what an elite looks like."

Katsumi strode forward, her grin widening as the crowd began to part before her.

And they wondered why she had a bit of an ego…

"It's true." A lethargic voice cut through the mutters of the crowd. "We came to get a look at the famous class 1A, are they all so _modest_?"

Who the hell was _this_ giant motherfucker?

The boy towered over most of the other first years, his wavy lavender hair adding to his already impressive height. Aside from the purple bags that appeared to be permanently etched under his eyes, he was ordinary with no obvious indication of his quirk.

He came to stand before her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Gotta say, I'm a little disillusioned if _this_ is all the famous hero course has to offer. Didn't they say there was some super talented class pres or something…" He glanced over to Engines, "Is that you, big guy?"

"That is incorrect!" Iida said, chopping his hand through the air. "Our most respected class president is still recovering from his injuries!"

"So even the leader himself can get away with ditching… If that's the kind of mindset the gifted have, then maybe taking a spot in the hero course won't be as hard as I thought…"

Katsumi's hand slowly curled into a fist, a hot anger broiling under the surface. Did this fucker just walk up to their class and _dare_ trash on Deku?! For being more of a hero than _any_ of them? Disgusting.

"Hey dude, take that back! Midoriya probably works harder than all of us!" Pinky shouted from their classroom. Maybe she could have some rice next time…

Skeletor continued his dispassionate speech. "Depending of the results of the Sports Festival, they might consider transferring us to the Hero Course. There's more of us biding our time in general ed than you'd think…" He turned away ominously. "This'll be the perfect chance to knock you off your pedestals.

Consider this a declaration of war."

Katsumi'd nearly lunged after the floofy-haired fuck but found herself unable to gain any traction Uraraka lifted her with a single hand a few inches off the ground.

Her eyebrow twitched in irritation. "The fuck is it with everyone picking me u these days?! Lemme fuckin kill him, round face! He's practically _begging _for it!"

"If Izuku was here, would he have let you get away with that?" Ochako asked innocently.

Katsumi ceased her fruitless struggles, falling limply in the shorter girl's grip.

The answer was no, of course… _She _knew that. Besides, this way they'd have an audience to witness the beatdown she'd unleash on that pompous prick!

"I'm cool, _I'm cool_," she hissed. "Put me down."

Ochaco obliged, falling into step as they made their way back to the Heights Alliance dorms.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"I'm gonna _roast _that fucking asshole!"

"Katsumi-chan! Slow _down!"_

Izuku watched on, twirling a pen with his silvery left hand as the resident students of heights Alliance finally returned after a long day of hero studies. He'd thought Katsumi might have been able to make it through _one _day without pissing someone off. But in this case, it seemed to be the opposite. Who'd gotten her so riled up?

Izuku let the pen clatter to the tabletop, earning the attention of his returning classmates.

"H-hey guys, it's Midoriya!"

"Yooo! Good to see ya up and at em, Midoriya!"

"We were worried, _k__ero."_

Iida slashed an arm rapidly through the air. "I had no doubt that you would be making a full recovery, Midoriya-kun!" He stomped up to Izuku, proudly gesturing as if presenting a game show prize.

"Well… as full a recovery as I could manage, I suppose." Izuku frowned slightly at his quicksteel arm, the rest of his quirk floating languidly overhead.

"Whadduya mean?" Mina said, slipping into the seat to his left. "That's just your quirk, right? What's wrong?"

"Aizawa mentioned you withstood the might of the monster sent to kill All Might," Tokoyami said, leaning against the common room wall. He leveled a raptor-like eye towards Izuku. "He _also_ mentioned you sustained injuries to your left arm… considering the fact that our sensei was well enough to return to school, yet you were not…"

Izuku saw the realization come over the faces of some of the more quick-witted members of his class.

"Anyone ever tell you that you're too clever for your own good, Tokoyami?" Izuku said, smiling at the raven-headed young man.

The boy in question closed his eyes contemplatively. "A comrade in arms should not be forced to bear such a burden alone."

"W-will you be ok, Midoriya-san?" Yaoyorozu asked, fiddling with his uniform in worry.

Izuku smiled as reassuringly as he could at the tall beauty. "It's not a problem, Yaomomo."

"A-am I the only one whose missing something here?" Mineta asked hesitantly. "The mood in here totally tanked all of a sudden." Kaminari, Sero and a few of the others who were more slow on the uptake nodded in agreement.

Izuku wasn't the biggest fan of the shortest of his new classmates, but he truly appreciated the boy injecting a bit of levity into the situation.

He wasn't quite sure if moving past the shock of losing a limb so quickly was a healthy reaction, but then again… How many others who'd experienced the same tragedy had a quirk that could act as a suitable replacement almost immediately. The trauma could hardly be considered on the same scale.

Izuku certainly had plenty of work to do fine tuning his dexterity with his quicksteel prosthetic, but he'd hardly have to relearn how to live his life. For day to day activities, what would be a crippling injury to a normal person would be an inconvenience at best.

But not everyone would see it that way.

His mother certainly hadn't.

His ears were still ringing from the hours it had taken to calm down the distraught woman when she'd visited earlier that morning. It was a prime example of words often being insufficient to overcome human emotions. Hopefully, his classmates would be more understanding.

Izuku detatched the tendrils of quicksteel that fixed the appendage to his forearm, ignoring the gasps that echoed over the quiet of the common room. The metallic hand separated completely, revealing the twisted stump of his wrist for all to see. The injury looked like it was months old rather than days, a testament to the healing powers of Recovery girl. But even still, the wound wasn't pretty, and Izuku wasn't exactly comfortable with it.

For a moment, all was silent.

Izuku subconsciously prepared himself for the mocking taunts he'd grown used to in his time before UA. Despite logically knowing his new classmates were nothing like the future criminals that had infested his previous school, he couldn't help but expect what he was conditioned to.

His self-doubt was shattered as a familiar hand slipped into his own. Izuku's jade eyes darted to Katsumi as she settled into his right side. She purposefully avoided his gaze, pink dusting her cheeks as she inspected the walls of the common area.

"That's… Midoriya, dude… That's so freaking _manly!" _ Kirishima cried, staring at the quicksteel model as it hovered in mid air. "It's like a pirate hook, except a hundred times cooler!"

What…

"You're sure it doesn't hurt, Midoriya?" The disembodied hot pink bracelette that shook around waist-level told him the source of the voice, but Izuku was still trying to wrap his head around this response.

Jiro poked him in the shoulder lightly with her jacks. "That _is _kinda rad, Midoriya."

He should have trusted his new friends… They'd fought off the threat together after all, even if they weren't all in the same place.

Only Todoroki hadn't offered a comment on Izuku's injury, instead choosing to stand off to the side with an unreadable expression on his face.

It wasn't as if he disapproved of what was being said.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Izuku hadn't seen Todoroki socialize with a single person in their class outside communicating to complete objectives for practical assignments. The fact that he had hung around at all rather than retreat to his room proved that he had to care a least a _little. _

Right?

Izuku made a mental note to make more of an effort to talk to the youngest Todoroki when he got a chance.

"Alright, Deku, I hope you're done slackin the fuck off. We're back to morning spars starting tomorrow, We've gotta' get that shitty hand of yours back into fighting shape."

Well… he'd planned on doing that anyway, but something gave him the idea that Katsumi was focused on something other than prepping him for One for All.

"Skeletor won't fucking know what hit him!"

…

Skeletor?

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku ducked to the right as Katsumi blew past him with a flying knee. The combo of sharp strikes she followed up with were each met with a sturdy forearm block. Izuku whipped out a kick that whizzed past her chin as she leaned back, following up with a left-handed swipe.

The timing was off.

Katsumi sidestepped his strike with fluid grace, swinging a knee into his exposed torso. Izuku let out a hiss of air as the blow connected with a solid thud.

She winced, just like she had every time she'd exploited the unrefined movements of his left hand. But she'd never hold back for something like that.

Izuku smirked through the pain. Katsumi'd probably consider that the greatest insult of all… But either way, he'd never learn if she ignored obvious openings in his guard.

That didn't make the bruises throb any less.

Izuku hopped over Katsumi's attempted leg sweep, lashing out with his right foot the moment he landed. The kick struck true, briefly breaking her guard.

Izuku didn't hesitate at the opportunity. He rushed the shorter girl, ducking low into a right hook to her liver.

Which she blocked with a raised knee… but the elbow he struck out with afterwards slipped right through, slamming into her and sending her tumbling across the mat.

It had been three days since Aizawa had announced to the rest of the class of the impending sports festival, and four since All Might had enlightened him to one of the greatest secrets of modern society.

"Fuckin _finally_ you're getting some hits in, nerd, I was getting worried you'd turned into a fuckin wuss for a second." Katsumi rolled over backwards, landing lightly on her feet. She hopped lightly from foot to foot, strafing slowly across the mat

She'd been relentless in their constant sparring, general hero studies taking a more free-form approach in the weeks leading up to the Sports Festival. The students were split up to work independently with different teachers interchanging to oversee their progress.

For the first time since school had begun, the sensei responsible for general studies in the hero course were given a more hands-on role to perform.

However, due to their own reliance on technical fighting ability, he and Kacchan's overseer hadn't changed.

Aizawa watched on with a narrowed eyes.

"Midoriya… you're obviously on the right path when it comes to regaining your previous proficiency. It's good to see you being so rational about all of this… Keep practicing." His eyes snapped to Kacchan. "Bakugo—"

She narrowed her eyes at their sensei…

"—language."

"You fuckin' kidding me, Eraserhead?!"

He leveled a blank stare at the girl. "I rest my case."

"W-wow." Ojiro said from the sidelines. He was one of the few students who had remained with Aizawa. "You're like a force of nature, Midoriya… and I had no idea Bakugo was so disciplined… she's always so…"

Izuku nodded in understanding, there were those words falling short again.

"The fuck is _that _supposed to mean, Jack?! Hah? Don't just trail off like that!"

Katsumi wasn't amused.

"Settle down, problem child," Aizawa drawled. "We've got work to do…"

Had Izuku imagined the smile their sensei just hid in his scarf?

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku flung quicksteel orbs of varying size at Katsumi as she seemingly _danced _through the air.

He knew his job was to act as a glorified pitching machine, but he couldn't help but be entranced by the sight.

Katsumi had long since concluded that sustained flight was a pipe dream at this point, but she'd obviously found the next best thing. With enough practice, minute blasts of a carefully applied force from Katsumi's bare feet could be used to change the explosion-user's trajectory in midflight.

It wasn't the first time he'd seen her attempt to air walk, but it _was_ the first time she'd shown any sort of proficiency.

"You've been holding out on me, Kacchan!" He called, kicking globs of quicksteel out of the main mass floating before him. They rocketed towards Katsumi's evading figure, missing by a hair as she flipped head over heels contorting her body out of the way.

"A girl's gotta have her _secrets_!" Katsumi grunted, blasting the last glob of quicksteel out of the way with a backhanded palm. She came sliding to a halt in the dirt, heaving with exertion.

So many repetitive explosions obviously came with a risk of self-harm over extended periods of time. But still… this was _amazing_. Izuku never got tired of the way Katsumi turned her so obviously destructive power into such a multifaceted ability.

"Can _everyone _fly these days?" Uraraka said in awe of the other girl.

"Nah, you just picked the best of the best to hang out with, Round face!" Katsumi strolled up to Izuku, grinning up cockily.

Her workout clothes may have been easier to move in, but the capris sweatpants and sports bra were a more deadly weapon than her fists. At least to _Izuku._ The sweat that clung to her toned midriff, glistening in the afternoon sun did things to him he'd rather not mention. The distraction was enough to derail his line of thought, at least until Uraraka elbowed him with a giggle.

"Earth to Izuku!

"R-right…" He said, shaking his head.

"Somethin caught your eye, nerd?" Katsumi

He grinned. "A while ago, yeah."

Katsumi glanced away, tossing her bag over her shoulder.

Uraraka squealed with joy. "You guys are so freakin' cute! I'm so freaking _happy! _The tension was killing me…" She fanned herself dramatically.  
"Yeah… me too," Izuku sighed. "Ready to go back?"

"Sure, nerd."

"Yup."

oooOoOoOooo

_"Increasingly frequent accounts of villain attacks have been reported in multiple cities surrounding the Musutafu region. Analysts speculate that that the culprit is a single assailant targeting heroes in isolated areas out of the public eye._

_We at Herowatch urge civilians and heroes alike to avoid traveling alone, particularly in areas-"_

"What was that?" Izuku asked, strolling into the Heights Alliance common room.

The décor of the room certainly showed more western influence than some of the more traditional designs preferred in their country

Momo and Jiro sat at one of the leather couches arranged around the large central coffee table. The taller of the two girls still hadn't changed out of her school uniform despite class having ended several hours previously. Though, she'd at _least_ lost the tie and untucked her blouse.

Momo sat with perfect posture, surrounded by towers of books that seemed to contain a myriad of subjects. Upon closer inspection, Izuku realized many of them concerned subjects relating to chemistry and physics. It made sense considering the limitations, or perhaps the _un_limited nature of her quirk.

Jiro, on the other hand, lounged to her left, clad in a lose tank top and shorts, exposing the pale skin of her shoulders and legs to the air. She idly flipped through the channels displayed on the holographic display dominating the majority of the southern wall.

"Eh… some news report…" Jiro said dismissively. "Some guy's goin' around targeting heroes or something, they've been trying to track him down for a while now…"

Katsumi trailed into the room behind him, tossed her workout bag onto an empty couch and headed straight for the kitchen. "Sounds like every fuckin' villain ever…"

Izuku nodded. "Fair enough, I suppose getting attacked by villains _is_ an occupational hazard, huh…" He flexed the metallic digits of his left hand, admiring the way the chandelier overhead reflected off the material.

"It's not just that he's attacking heroes… he's _hunting_ them." Yaomomo dropped her pen to the table, adjusting her reading glasses imperiously. It must have been convenient to never have to worry about lost glasses… Then again, Yaoyorozu certainly didn't seem like the type that would be careless just because she could replace lost items instantly.

"Makes sense that he's staying out of Musutafu then… fuckin coward." Katsumi tossed a cold bottle of water across the room, Izuku snatching it out of the air with his left hand effortlessly.

Momo nodded thoughfully. "I've heard mixed reports from different stations, but they all seem to agree that he only attacks isolated targets in minor cities. Like he's afraid of more densely populated areas." She turned to Izuku as he collapsed into one of the other couches. "It would appear that your skill is improving, Midoriya." Momo nodded towards the bottle clutched in his quicksteel hand.

"It was fortunate that I'd already had so much practice with a coating of quicksteel over that hand…" Izuku said, twisting the cap off the bottle. He tipped his head back, guzzling the ice cold water, reveling in the refreshment after a particularly intense day of training.

Even after the more physically oriented lessons _during _school hours, he and Katsumi had been practicing for another few hours _after_ class. They'd been sure not to skip out on their normal exercises, but the majority of the time had been spent acclimating himself to his new appendage.

The added complexity of manipulating an entire hand, instead of molding a coating over an already-existing body part had taken the better part of the weeks leading up to the Sports Festival. Every day that Izuku spent going through the motions, his left hand became easier and easier to maintain subconsciously.

At this point in time, a mere two days before the event itself, the quicksteel prosthetic was becoming more and more lifelike by the minute. It was as if whatever controlled the telekinetic aspect of his quirk recognized the inherent _need_ for that particular construct, allowing it to remain stable even in heightened states of emotion.

Izuku had certainly had his doubts when he'd first woken up, despite his show of confidence, that he would ever regain full proficiency on that side ever again. But despite its imperfection, Izuku was still content with the progress he'd made in the little time he'd had.

But that brought to bear another problem.

Namely, seeking out All Might to receive One for All.

Izuku had seen the man in the halls of UA several times since he'd revealed the secret of his power, but had never had the opportunity to sit down with him.

It was no wonder the hero seemed to move about the school like a ghost despite his normally overwhelming presence. All Might must have been traversing the halls in his true form ever since they'd _come_ to UA this year. But when you weren't looking out for him, such a frail man, despite sharing such similar features to the famous hero, simply blended into the crowd.

A warm body settled into the space beside him, breaking Izuku out of his tumultuous thoughts. Katsumi pressed a protein bar into his chest, leaning into him seductively. "You're thinking too loudly, nerd. I could hear you all the way in the kitchen."

Izuku grinned down at her, peeling open the granola without breaking eye contact. "Is that so unreasonable, Kacchan? We've only got a few more days until the Sports Festival… it's not exactly your average school competition."

She grinned devilishly, flopping along the length of the couch and propping her bare feet in his lap. Izuku's hands went to work seemingly of their own accord, gently massaging the tender flesh. Her arches were always particularly sensitive after using explosion from the soles of her feet.

Izuku's eyes snapped up at the sound of a squeak, realizing a second later that such casual affection between non-siblings wasn't exactly the norm…

Yaoyorozu was writing furiously once more, studiously trying to ignore he and Katsumi as they lay together. Judging from the atomic blush lighting up her face it wasn't going so well. Izuku let out a small laugh as the woman's glasses began to fog up.

"S-so w-what's the deal with you two anyway?!" Jiro stuttered out, peeking at him through her fingers. "Are you guys like… _together?" _ The rocker girl's ear-jacks thrashed around her head, their normally pale skin tone flushed along with the rest of her face.

Izuku glanced down at Katsumi wondering what exactly she wanted him to say, only to find that she'd flung an arm over her eyes as if that would absolve her of all responsibility to the outside world.

Well… that's how she wanted to play it then it was up to him, right?

Izuku grinned widely, "Yeah, but it's still a bit new to us."

The tip of Momo's pencil snapped against the page of her notebook as her eyes snapped equally quickly between he and Katsumi. "Truly? With the way you two are together, I would have guessed you were highschool sweethearts."

"The _fuck,_ Ponytail? This ain't some shitty romantic comedy!" Katsumi said, sitting up.

"You really don't hold back when you speak, do you, Bakugo-san?" Momo said hesitantly. "Though I can't imagine anyone changing that about you…"

"Who'd _want _to?" Katsumi grinned. "I'm the shit." Izuku wasn't sure if the way she could deliver such a line without any hesitance was impressive, or narcissistic to the point of absurdity.

"I can think of a couple of our previous sensei that may have had a word or two to say about it," Izuku mused, resuming his massage.

Katsumi flopped back into the couch with a groan. "They were all too fuckin scared of upsetting _'the prodigy'_" she scoffed. "That was a school of extras if _I've _ever seen one."

"I dunno," Jiro said with a grin. "Something tells me Aizawa sensei wouldn't think twice about layin down the law if he really cared to."

Izuku nodded in agreement, "Something tells me he has higher priorities than monitoring Kacchan's profanity, lucky for her…"

They all chuckled companionably, Katsumi scowling up at him but unwilling to risk him ceasing the motions of his dexterous fingers.

"I gotta say, Katsumi…" Jiro sighed exaggeratedly. "You're livin the life, free massages whenever you want? That's pretty sweet, _no?"_

Momo's eyebrows rose minutely. "You should have said, something. I wasn't aware that you were sore as well, Jiro-san." She folded up her notebook, placing it back on the table and turned to the shorter-haired girl.

The flush that had just died down from earlier returned in full force to Jiro's cheeks. "I didn't—I mean… I wouldn't be _opposed _to it… if you wouldn't mind…"

Katsumi grinned at Jiro smugly. "Not so easy to stay on that fuckin high horse _now,_ is it, Lobes?"

"Sh-Shut up!"

oooOoOoOooo

"Am I the only one who thinks this is a fucking stupid idea?"

Izuku rubbed his head tiredly, trying not to agree with Katsumi's assessment of the situation. But as Izuku stared down All Might holding out a single, golden strand of hair plucked from his own iconic bangs, he was having a bit of trouble rationalizing the request to himself.

**"Nonsense, young Bakugo!" **All Might called, whipping the strand through the air as he gestured wildly. **"Trust me, I assure you this is the most palatable option for all…"**

Was he _really_ supposed to believe that this was the way the legendary quirk One for All was passed down? Would a blood transfusion not do the job? Well… considering All Might's blood type wasn't compatible with his own that option wasn't really viable.

But _still_… there had to be an easier way. "I… suppose the DNA explanation makes _some_ sense." Izuku hedged.

Katsumi leaned against the table of the private room they'd borrowed for their rendezvous with All Might. The blue and white UA gym uniform stretched against the muscular curves of her figure, momentarily distracting Izuku.

"Yeah, that _is_ fucking gross, but also not what I was talking about…"

Izuku scrunched his brows curiously, not quite understanding what she was getting at."

Katsumi sighed, lowering her eyelids as if her were being particularly dense. "This _power_ you're passing on, All Might, it can't be easy to control, _right? Why _exactly did we wait to do this shit until half an hour before the Sports Festival starts?!_"_

All Might nearly flinched at her narrowed gaze, shrinking down into his true form. "I can't say that was my personal experience with One for All," he said, scratching his chin lightly. He turned to Izuku, sticking out the hair once more. "The power manifests in a way unique to each holder, what better way to find out how than trial by fire!"

Izuku grasped the hair with trepidation, already feeling a lump in his throat. But power only came to those who were willing to work hard… This was merely another facet to that belief…

He _somehow_ managed to choke the hair down, though not without significant effort.

"I… don't feel any different." Izuku said curiously, looking down at his mismatched palms.

**"Well of course not, my boy! I'd be more surprised if you could digest something in an instant, these things take time!"**

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Katsumi drawled. "So not only will the nerd have no practice with it, but it'll show up randomly in a couple hours?" She barked out a mirthful laugh. "I can't wait to see _this."_

"Eh…" Izuku mused, trying to scrub the taste of All Might's shampoo from his tongue. "What could go wrong?


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Got into a groove, so here's a new chapter a bit earlier than expected. But first... I need help for a few chapters in the future. They'll obviously be choosing hero names, and I kinda wrote myself into a corner having Izuku's quirk be called quicksteel, when I could have just called it 'metallurgy' and had Quicksteel be his hero name... I'm not a fan of 'Metallurgy' as a hero name, but I'm not sure where to go from there. 'Deku' doesn't fit with the narrative of this AU, so does anyone have any alternative ideas? I wanted to stay within the same thematic elements so something like... 'The Forge' or 'Rider' or something like that... idk.**

**That being said, enjoy the chapter.**

**They're Off!**

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku made his way towards the locker room designated for class 1A, having just parted ways with All Might, who'd taken his hero form the minute they'd left the privacy of the personal locker room. Katsumi paced by his side, her brow furrowed in concentration.

They were about to perform in front of literally _millions _of people after all, thousands of who would be there in person. Katsumi hadn't really ever gotten nervous performing in front of others, at least not externally, but even so, with such a large crowd it was no wonder the girl was so focused.

"Midoriya, a word?"

Izuku paused, recognizing the voice of perhaps the least sociable of his classmates calling out to him. Todoroki was an enigma, and Izuku couldn't, for the life of him, think of reason why the formidable hero-in-training would want to speak with him.

"Go on, I'll catch up." He waved off Katsumi's narrowed glare, laughing lightly as she scowled at Todoroki's back once she'd passed him in the hallway.

Todoroki turned to walk away wordlessly, clearly expecting Izuku to follow.

Izuku took the hint, him to a hallway out of the most traversed paths of the stadium.

Todoroki turned to face him, heterocromatic eyes glinting intelligently behind bangs of a similar color scheme. He was silent for a few moments, staring unblinkingly into Izuku's own jade eyes, their similar height offering a neutral playing field in that regard. Whatever thoughts swirled under those often-emotionless eyes were anyone's guess. Izuku was still busy pondering why the boy had called him out in the first place.

"I'd been wondering whether to saying anything at all, considering recent events…" Todoroki's eyes flicked implicatively at Izuku's quicksteel prosthetic.

Izuku raised a single eyebrow in curiosity. What did _that _have to do with anything?

"Before the USJ, I'd have said you and I were pretty close in terms of power, but after your injury—"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Izuku cut in, eye twitching with irritation. The nerve of this guy… already disregarding him as a threat without a second glance.

"Like I said…" Todoroki paused, scratching his neck uncomfortably. "I wasn't sure whether to say anything in the first place, but… All Might has his eye on you, right?"

Izuku's eyes widened slightly, though he kept enough presence of mind to disguise it as a natural reaction. "What makes you say that?" Had Todoroki overheard something? Izuku was certain that the room they'd just come from had been secure, but one could never be sure…

Todoroki shrugged casually. "You just came out of a private room with him… you and Bakugo anyway…"

Izuku narrowed his eyes at the other boy. "I don't recall ever doing something that warranted a tail…"

"Hardly," Todoroki scoffed in a rare show of emotion. "Seeing you just now was merely a coincidence." He shrugged dismissively. "It doesn't really matter either way. I'd already planned to win this whole tournament, but taking down a favorite of All Might on the way would be the ideal scenario."

Izuku tilted his head curiously, silently studying the young hero-hopeful standing before him.

This obviously went beyond regular competitive spirit… Izuku had proven himself as one of the top students in their class for sure, but he wasn't the undisputed frontrunner by _any_ means. Kacchan and Yaoyorozu had both proven themselves capable on several occasions, even if the latter wasn't as combat-oriented as he or Todoroki.

Did he have a grudge against All Might? Or perhaps this conversation was on the behalf of a _different _Todoroki…

"Anyway… that's all I wanted to say…" he said, turning to leave.

Izuku settled his quicksteel prosthetic onto Todoroki's shoulder, halting his departure. The boy tensed under his grip, turning back to Izuku with a narrowed gaze. "What is it?"

Izuku grinned savagely. "If winning the Sports Festival is your goal, then I'd advise against underestimating your competition so easily. It wouldn't do to get knocked out in the first round."

Izuku relaxed his grip, letting Todoroki stroll away after another beat of silence.

"You can come out now, Kacchan…" Izuku sighed.

Katsumi strolled around the corner, entirely unrepentant at her eavesdropping. "That was pretty badass, Deku. Who knew you had it in you?"

He slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her down the hall towards where they were meant to meet up with their class. "I'm surprised you managed to stay quiet that whole time…."

Katsumi grinned an unnerving grin. "There's nothing to say… Just pound him into the fucking dirt and he'll learn to respect his betters."

Izuku sighed. "I wouldn't go _that _far…" he said, tracing slow circles into the skin around her hip. He grinned as she shivered in response.

"But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the combat events this year…."

"That's what I'm fuckin _talkin' _about! Time to crush the extras on National TV!"

oooOoOoOooo

Izuku'd slipped into the locker room assigned to their class a few moments behind Todoroki, the icy-hot user giving no indication of the conversation they'd had moments earlier. That had been fine with Izuku, but the atmosphere in the air had been heavy even _without_ a public declaration of war. Each member of class 1-A went about settling their nerves for the day's events in their own way.

The usual group of Ashido, Kirishima, Kaminari and Kyouka stood in one corner of the room, nervously trading joking barbs, the electricity user seemingly taking the brunt of their teasing. Conversely, Momo sat alone, frantically reciting something under her breath. From what Izuku could hear, he vaguely recognized as information from her collection of encyclopedias.

He woudn't judge. Whatever helped the girl calm down was fine in his books.

But Izuku himself, like Katsumi by his side, was radiating anticipation, raring for a proper fight. He'd spent years of his childhood watching the newest upcoming rookies make their debut on this stage, and now, it was finally his turn to make his mark.

Before long, an event coordinator came to lead their class to lead them out into a long hallway that led straight into the blinding light of the open air stadium. As they grew closer to the light, the gentle buzz of the distant crowd grew into a deafening roar.

Yet cutting through that formidable noise with ease was the magnified voice of Present Mic, their resident announcer for the games. **"The UA sports festival! The huge battle where fledgling heroes sharpen their swords once a year!"**

Present Mic paused dramatically, ever the showman, as he waited for the exhultant cheers to die down. **"Alriiiight! This first class needs no introduction, but they're getting one anyway! Taking on hardened villains in just their first year at UA and sending them packing! It's class 1A!"**

Izuku was the first of his class to take that fateful step onto the stage where he planned to declare himself to the world. The light grew less blinding, while his smile did the opposite, as the tens of thousands of fans, practically an _ocean_ of bodies packed into that massive stadium, filled his vision.

Their sister class was announced next, followed by the various business and general studies courses, but Izuku was too entranced by how positively _tiny _the stadium made him feel. The rooftop extended just far enough to provide shade for the spectators, leaving most of the grounds exposed to the elements.

Before long, they'd found themselves lined up with the rest of the competitors, some of which seeming disappointingly resigned to their fate, but the overwhelming majority appearing like they had something to prove.

_Fantastic_, Izuku grinned, his competitive spirit bubbling beneath the surface. What was the point if they didn't even _try?_

It was at that moment that Midnight, the Sports Festival's freshman hostess of the last several years decided to take the stage.

Izuku rubbed his forehead tiredly as the crowd erupted in the expected cheers and catcalls. To someone who followed the pro-hero scene as closely as he did, the voluptuous woman that strut her way up the short staircase to the stage was a walking contradiction. The most recent iteration of her hero costume, and in fact her hero persona as a whole, practically _oozed _eroticism. And yet, she'd been trusted to host perhaps the most publicly televised event in recent history, year after year.

It wasn't unheard of for a hero to use their looks to gain popularity, but Izuku knew that in the case of the R-rated hero, Midnight, it was merely a small part of the whole package. Beyond her sex appeal serving as a functional pairing with the pro-hero's quirk, she knew how to balance hero work, and what Izuku like to think of as her 'Daylight' persona…

Even as she played to the crowd at that very moment, it was obvious to anyone that hero captivated fans of _any _demographic. Izuku also recalled that in addition to her job at UA, the hero regularly made donations to improve opportunities for a hero career path in more rural areas across the country.

An echoing _crack_ silenced those that hadn't been paying attention already. Midnight stood with a hip cocked to one side, her whip coiling loosely at her feet as she stared down at the assembled group of students with a positively _hungry _smile pulling at her lips. "Before we begin, we'll have the student representative of the hero course say a few words! From class 1A, Bakugo Katsumi!"

Izuku sighed, at least they'd given both he _and_ Kacchan a heads up, since despite ending up with identical scores, Katsumi was chosen as the representative for their age group on a technicality. Ironically, villain points took priority over rescue points for the entrance exam, which explained why the girl still held first place over his own score.

That, however, was fine with Izuku. Public speaking had never been his strong suit despite long since overcoming his nervous disposition as a child. He was quite happy to leave the opening ceremony to the girl in question, grinning as she practically _drank_ in the attention…

At the time, he hadn't given it much thought…. But in hindsight, giving her a mic in front of such a massive crowd may have not been the best idea. He should have known the girl would take advantage of such an opportunity to proclaim her superiority over each and every other student in attendance.

"I thought this was obvious enough, but repeating myself here might hold a bit more weight…" She carved an extended thumb threateningly across her neck. "I'm gonna beat all of you scrubs, and there's nothing you can do about it."

_Oh, Kacchan…_

To say the assembled first years weren't pleased would be a colossal understatement.

"Hey! What the hell!"

"The fuck do you think you are!?"

But the few angry shouts from the lined-up students were positively _dwarfed_ by the deafening roar of the crowd. The response was not _all_ negative, however.

Katsumi was belligerent and arrogant, for certain, but Izuku had known from a young age how compelling his girlfriend could be at times. It was one of the reasons he'd fallen in love with her after all…

Katsumi stood proudly on the stage, a negligent air about her, taking the cheers and jeers of the crowd head on. Another moment and she turned away, strolling confidently down the stairs leading down from the stage, coming to a stop once more at his side.

"Was that really necessary, Kacchan?" Izuku sighed lightly.

She grinned predatorily. "What can I say? gotta let the masses know who to look out for, not that they'll be able to look away once they see me with their own eyes." She slammed a fist into her palm, the motion sparking dangerous on impact.

"Are my eyes on you not enough?" Izuku said softly. He laughed as she flushed immediately, unprepared for the casual comment.

"Shut the fuck up, nerd. Don't distract me when I'm trynna; focus!"

"You two are adorable_!" _Uraraka whispered from two rows back.

Izuku shot out a hand to grip Katsumi's shoulder just in time to prevent the hotheaded girl from leaping over the seat in retaliation.

A _crack_ of Midnight's whip pierced the rumbles of discontent within and out of the crowd and in another moment the woman had regained control. It seemed that her dominatrix persona wasn't just for show…

"Now, without any delay, let's get the first event started!" She gestured grandly to an enormous screen that appeared behind her, a plethora of different events cycling through on an automated randomizer. "These are the qualifiers, people. It's in _this _stage that the vast majority are sent home crying every year!" The options cycled slower and slower before coming to a stop at…

**"It's the Obstacle Course Race!" **Present Mic skillfully cut in. He went on to hype up the crowd. **"A four kilometer race is hard enough, party people! But here at UA, the distance is the least of their worries! Quirk usage is unlimited in this chaotic free-for-all between every member of all eleven classes! Contestants _must_ pass through the clearly marked checkpoints at the beginning and ends of every obstacle. As long as you don't go off the course, anything else is fair game!"**

Izuku had been internally debating how strictly they'd enforce 'off the course,' as it'd probably save a lot of time to just avoid the obstacles altogether. But with the added bit about the checkpoints between obstacles, those areas would leave him more vulnerable than usual.

Midnight wasn't lying about the amount of eliminations in the first round, but there was still an opportunity for strategy. Izuku had personally seen every UA sports festival in the last _decade_, and despite a high variation between the first events, they _always _allowed for a decent number to move on to the second round. Only his own class knew the true scope of his abilities, it might be prudent to not show his entire hand right away…

**"Three…"**

But then again…

Izuku glanced to the crowds of competing students as they glared each other down. Kirishima in particular seemed to be mean-muggin' a student with ash-gray hair and odd markings around his eyes. They bodily shouldered each other out of they way, each vying for an optimum position on the starting line.

**"Two…"**

If he _really_ wanted to make his mark, then an undisputed first _had_ to be the way to go.

**"One…" **

Quicksteel rippled and flattened, and Izuku stepped onto his skyboard as it molded into existence, leaving the remaining mass of the material to float around his head for defense. He rose above the heads of the entire starting line, Shoji, Sato, Koda and some of the other students with more towering physiques glancing his way with widening eyes.

"**START!"**

He jolted forward, his quirk affording him a huge advantage over those struggling shoulder to shoulder for the even the slightest advantage. With so many participants, bottlenecking was only to be expected, and the problem was only heightened by the design of the course itself. With the starting pathway leading into a tunnel only a few meters wide it was like the tournament heads _wanted _them to brawl right away.

The roar of the crowd only served to remind him _why._

Izuku led even the quickest students by meters in just a few seconds, at least until Iida sped past his position, shifting straight into fourth gear to take advantage of the straightaway once he'd broken free of the pack. Izuku widened a disk of quicksteel to block the debris kicked up by the motorized teen, only to pick up a flicker of movement in his right peripheral.

He ducked sharply, digging his quicksteel prosthetic into the surface of his skyboard as Katsumi came flying overhead, lashing out with a blazing palm in an attempt to disrupt his footing. Rather than pursue any further, she capitalized on his short moment of hesitation and zipped ahead, extending the lengths of her strides with localized explosions. The attack was nothing more than an opening salvo from the girl, and the subtle grin she shot back his way said as much better than any words could have.

Izuku's years of experience had him recovering his balance in mere moments, only to grin over at Todoroki who surfed a wave of ice parallel to his position. The dual element user apparently didn't share his mirth, instead narrowing his gaze at the approaching tunnel where Iida and Katsumi had already disappeared.

Izuku had a feeling that being trapped behind Todoroki in an enclosed area would only lead to his downfall, especially with the hero hopeful already so fixated on outperforming him. He leaned near-horizontally over his skyboard, pushing the quicksteel construct towards the upper limits of its top speed.

Pillars of crystal blue ice lanced across the distance between he and Todoroki, but Izuku's maneuverability proved superior as he weaved in between the obstacles and slipped in a few seconds ahead.

_There. _Izuku breathed a sigh of momentary relief as blinding sunlight was eclipsed by the tunnel. With the enclosed space limiting Todoroki's ability to travel by ice, Izuku was free to extend the distance between them while pursuing the two frontrunners. A glance towards the end of the tunnel told him that Kacchan wasn't that far ahead, but with the lack of turns so far, gods know how far ahead Iida had gotten.

**"Ohhh and it looks like we've got a four-way battle for the lead as the contestants approach the tunnel! The engine man himself pulls ahead with a _righteous _burst of speed!" **Present Mic cried into his… mic. **"The tenacious Bakugo tears after him while the masters of sky and ice surf their way to victory! What the heck are those _crazy_ quirks!?"**

**"The first true obstacle is the shape of the course," **Aizawa drawled into his own mic, somehow still holding the device through mummified fists. **"My problem children may have other goals in mind, but getting ahead before the bottleneck is the rational decision here."**

**"Nice commentary, Erasa'!"**

Down on the field, Aizawa's words proved to be even more true than anyone thought when ice erupted around the already narrow tunnel entrance, blocking any other contestants from entering. However, true to the UA reputation, its students were not ones to stand idle.

On one side, Tokoyami's Dark Shadow powered directly through the blockage, while an orange-haired girl from class 1-B punched through in a similar manner with fists larger than her torso. Before too long, the ice blocking the way was weathered down by the various quirks of the UA participants, leaving the pathway clear for the masses of students to squeeze their way inside.

**"Looks like our frontrunners have come upon the first combative aspect of the obstacle course! It's—"**

oooOoOoOooo

**"—ROBO INFERNOO!"**

Izuku took to the skies almost immediately once he'd made his way to the end of the tunnel. A quick appraisal of the situation revealed Iida held up on the ground after finally being forced to cease his initial sprint. A line of refurbished Zero-pointers dotted the skyline, towering over the students that were so restricted by earthly tethers.

Luckily for Izuku, he had long-since abandoned such limitations, his mastery of his quirk allowing him to deftly dodge around the hulking metal monstrosities through the air. This was a race after all, and unlike during the Entrance exam, he had absolutely zero reason fight them in the first place.

But he wasn't the only one.

Katsumi blasted her way ahead in a similar manner, the small lead from earlier giving her a prime positioning to pass up the stalled Iida. She seemingly danced through the air as precision explosions from her hands and feet propelled her around reaching mechanical claws. Before he knew it, Katsumi was smashing directly through a final robot's limb with a blast hot enough to melt through its protective hull. Propelled by the force of the explosion, she flipped over the shoulder joint and slipped into the machine's blind spot.

Izuku tilted his skyboard down to pursue her, knowing that if either one of them got a particularly sizeable lead, their superior maneuverability would make it next to impossible for the other to catch up. It was why Kacchan had attacked him so directly right at the start, and he was paying for losing the initiative now.

But just as Izuku was picking up speed, he felt a chill through his quirk, his breath ghosting in the air air, and that could only mean—

_Whooooosh!_

Glassy blue ice of glacial proportions lanced through the space Izuku had previously occupied, crashing into and encapsulating the majority of hulking Zero pointers. The titanic robots struggled within their frosty prisons but for the moment seemed unable to move a mechanical muscle.

Izuku shook off his momentary shock at the display of power by his classmate. During the battle with the League of Villains they'd been surrounded by both active and injured comrades, so Todoroki hadn't really had an opportunity to really let loose with either of his elemental abilities. It seemed the dual quirked hero shared a love for robotic opponents with Kacchan, being able to fight them at full power without worrying about killing somebody.

But Todoroki had been kind enough to clear a path, and Izuku wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He shot off in pursuit of his hotheaded girlfriend, who'd extended her lead while he'd been busy dodging glaciers.

He peered ahead, noting how the landscape opened up into a wide chasm with only a few dozen scattered pillars affording stable footing. Katsumi seemed to be leaping from platform to platform ignoring the provided ropes connecting the pillars. The wind whipped at Izuku's bangs as he tucked down into his board for maximum aerodynamics. Unlike Kacchan, whose mobility he knew was limited by the kickback of repeated use of her explosion quirk, it was only Izuku's vulnerability to heat that could weaken his control over quicksteel.

Izuku dove sharply to clear the checkpoint between the robot obstacle and the chasm, then rocketed along the ground kicking up dust and debris in his wake. After a moment, the ground dropped out from under him, but he ignored it, continuing to whip across the chasm after Katsumi at close to his top speed. Within seconds, and just as Katsumi crested the hill dividing what Izuku vaguely heard Present Mic call the 'The Fall' and the next obstacle, he closed the gap enough to read the glint in fiery blonde's eye.

She flipped around, propping her back against the slope of the wall, and gripped her right wrist with her left as an orange glow smoldered in her palm. "No free wins, Deku!" she growled, grinning dangerously. "If you wanna' pass me, you're gonna have to fight me for it!"

Verdant eyes widening, Izuku combined his entire mass of quicksteel into his skyboard, expanding it into a shield wide enough to guard against the attack. His quirk responded just in the nick of time as Kacchan's explosion erupted, setting the space around him alight with a conflagration of heat and smoke.

Izuku flinched at the almost debilitating fatigue that washed over him in that moment, beads of sweat springing into existence on his brow. Katsumi must have superheated that particular explosion, knowing better than anyone the not-so-obvious drawbacks of his quirk. If he didn't have that kind of defensive power to fall back on, that attack could have roasted him alive. Izuku certainly knew her intentions, but even as he curled up behind his half dome of quicksteel waiting out the explosion, he feared how the world would perceive her seemingly vicious actions.

oooOo Rumi oOooo

Glinting ruby eyes surveyed the luxurious VIP booth that housed some of the Sports Festival's most prominent guests. Nearly every private table was filled to capacity with pros, not to mention the various agency representatives accompanying them, all of who were itching to get their hands on any rising young talent that would be featured year after year.

Imported Italian leather covered every chair while the wooden lounge tables gleamed with a polished sheen. The entire north side of the room was covered by floor to ceiling panoramic windows overlooking the stadium at the optimum height to view the later rounds of the tournament. Food and drinks were, of course, provided free of charge. It was, after all, one of the only reasons Rumi had bothered to even to _show up_ this year.

When it came to sheer entertainment, the third-year students competing in the Sports Festival would obviously put up a better showing, having had a much longer period of time to train and refine their quirks. But despite that fact, it was the first-year competitors that always drew the attention of the pros.

The reason was quite obvious if given a bit of thought. Once a hero in training had worked with a chosen agency for a semester or more, it was only the rare exception for that student to switch to another. So, while the second and third-year students normally offered much more in terms of competition and sponsorships, it was only the first years that were truly free agents without any previous commitments.

Her booted soles thumped repeatedly against the luxiourious oak wood floors in agitation. She'd never had any patience for the bureaucratic or marketing aspects of the hero lifestyle, and the thought of having to watch these kids being paraded about for half the day didn't really appeal to her all that much.

As if punctuating her point, the hero yawned, stretching lean, mocha-colored arms past a pair of long, crooked rabbit ears.

"You could at least _try _to act like you're paying attention, Mirko."

She glanced to the source of the voice, recognizing the lecturing tone of No. Four Hero, Best Jeanist, who stood before her in all his denim glory…

She rolled her eyes dismissively. "Fuck off, Tsunagu, I'm not one of your prissy towelboys to order around." Rumi eyed the Pro's outfit with obvious distain. "Still wearing that ridiculous getup I see?" She smirked, exposing a row of astonishingly white teeth.

"Must you always be so vulgar…" the man sighed, placing a splayed hand over his brow. "Besides, you don't seem to mind my brand yourself…" he added, eyeing the grey material that clung to Mirko's powerful yet feminine legs.

She scowled, avoiding his gaze, knowing he was probably grinning triumphantly underneath that absurd collar of his. The stylized '_Jeanist' _logo that was woven into the back pocket of her pants wasn't currently visible, seated as she was, but she had no doubt that the pro could recognize his own work in a millisecond.

"Not _my_ fault they make my ass look great…" she muttered, crossing her legs petulantly. What could she say… the man could make a great pair of jeans, and as much as she loved her own hero costume, there was nothing like lounging about in casual clothes on her rare days off.

Rumi's publicist had _begged_ her to attend the first-year events of the festival this year, even if she didn't intend to apprentice any students. So, in a rare show of compliance, she'd shown up, prepared to be bored out of her mind for the next four or five hours.

But that was before Rumi had seen the little blonde spitfire in action…

The crowd erupted into a cacophony of cheers and jeers as the various widescreens arranged around the stadium were painted a fiery orange, providing multiple angles of the Bakugo girl as she rocketed around the obstacle course with the grace of a dancer and the power of an apex predator.

The VIP room rumbled with a slightly more civilized yet no less opinionated reaction when the girl had demonstrated her brutality. She didn't hesitate in the slightest to directly attack the other competitors, appearing particularly fixated on the athletic looking boy that doggedly tailed her rapid progress through UA's vaunted obstacles. Though Rumi didn't blame the girl, as judging by the commentary by Present Mic and Eraserhead, the two were both classmates and had probably been competing since the beginning of the year.

"She's too reckless…" Jeanist commented with narrowed eyes from where he'd taken a seat beside her.

"She's _brilliant_." Rumi countered, her grin once again unerringly wide.

"Oh? It's odd for _you _to take an interest in a student, Mirko…" Jeanist commented.

That was true enough…

This time of year heroes usually clamored to attract promising young hopefuls to their agencies.

But she was different from the rest.

Not only was she the highest-ranking Heroine in Japan, but disregarding All Might, and _really,_ anyone would be foolish to consider themselves on the same level, she was the only solo hero currently holding a position in the top ten. It'd been _years _since she'd last taken a sidekick, let alone a tagalong still in school, and she'd had no intention of breaking that trend.

But _this _one…

Rumi watched the display, ruby eyes flashing with fascination as the girl spun around before prepping an attack that _promised _to leave destruction in its wake.

"Somebody stop her!"

"She's gonna _kill_ that kid!"

Mirko scoffed as some of the pencil-pushers in attendance audibly panicked. Despite Jeanist's comment on the girl's recklessness, she'd demonstrated a commendable amount of control over such a potentially destructive quirk. Considering the two seemed to know each other, it wasn't like the Bakugo girl would try to _kill _the guy… not unless he'd been a real dick or something…

By no will of her own, the thumping of Mirko's foot picked up in pace, this time spurred by anticipation rather than boredom. Could the green-haired boy handle the _heat?_

oooOo Izuku oOooo

**"Erasa! What the hell are you teaching those students of yours!? Bakugo blasts the pursuing Midoriya to kingdom come! I'm not sure he'll make it out of this on—"**

**"—He's fine, look closer…" **Aizawa said blandly, cutting over the entergetic commentary of the blond commentater beside him.

Sure enough, a blur of shining metal pierced through the cloud of billowing smoke and debris, making a beeline for the far end of the mindfield.

Globules of quicksteel dripped off the remains of his skyboard in liquid form, returning to their default position trailing behind his head. The heat from Kacchan's blast had left Izuku struggling to mold enough to stay aloft, let alone dodge the blasts that the girl continued to shoot back at him over her shoulder.

Luckily for him, the Katsumi's stamina was flagging from the massive explosion she'd fired off earlier, making her attacks weak enough to avoid even on a busted version of his skyboard. He clumsily skidded through the final checkpoint at the end of the minefield, sparing a short glance over his shoulder, picking out Katsumi just a few meters behind him, and just behind _her,_ Todoroki, sliding straight across path of ice, avoiding the explosives lying in wait.

Given enough time, the dual quirk user may have been able to catch up to Izuku's position, but the finish line was in sight, leaving Katsumi as the only true competition remaining. Both their quirks were well and truly exhausted, but if there was anything Izuku was truly proud of, it was the extent that he'd gone to train his physical body.

That being said, Katsumi certainly made him work for it, doggedly pursuing his lead position until He'd staggered across the finish line, collapsing to the ground a moment later while heaving great lungfuls of air. Following his lead a moment later, Katsumi scowled, flopping down beside him and digging a bony elbow with unerring accuracy into his exposed torso.

The roar of the crowd and the perhaps even more deafening cries of the Present mic's continuous commentary drowned out any of the words she'd tried to speak to him, but Izuku got the general idea.

_It's only the first round, nerd…_

_Don't get cocky, Deku, I'll waste you in the tournament…_

He'd had plenty of practice interpreting.

oooOoOoOooo

Considering the vast variations between each event of the sports festival year to year, timed records weren't actually considered legitimate. That being said, he and Katsumi, and to a lesser degree, Todoroki, who'd come in third, had put up some of the most respectable obstacle course times UA had seen in years.

It was certainly a fantastic first step in making his mark on the world and hopefully, All Might could look on this performance with pride.

It'd taken nearly half an hour for the last of the competitors to cross the finish line, but when they had, the placings had astounded him.

Granted, 1-A had very clearly dominated the majority of the top ten spots, but after that, there were just as many unknown faces as those from his class. Izuku really shouldn't have been surprised, there was an entire other _class_ of first year hero students of which he had no information on, not to mention the gen-ed kids that Kacchan had brought up in passing earlier that week. Izuku had known the drawbacks to taking such a brute force approach to the first event, and it appeared he'd being paying for it now with his total lack of intel on the rest of the participants.

As Midnight went on to explain the rules of the next event, a super powered Cavalry battle from the sound of it. His first thought was to locate a suitable teammate to act as a sturdy foundation, but reconsidered it a moment later. Team scores were totaled, so there was no reason he couldn't act as the horse. Hell… if he chose a small enough team, couldn't he just carry them out of reach so they could wait out the time limit… Was that even allowed?

**"—our first-place participant is worth… Ten Million Points!" **Midnight's voice cut through his thoughts, while also throwing a wrench in all his plans.

Izuku certainly felt a tangible shift in atmosphere, as the various students surrounding him all turned to stare him down. But he'd spent the greater portion of his life around _Kacchan _of all people. These weak-ass glares were _nothing _to him. He tilted his head slightly, cocking an unimpressed eyebrow at his 'hunters.'

**"Teams have fifteen minutes to finalize their rosters, begin!" **Midnight snapped her whip, spurring the participants into action.

Izuku glanced around, taking his time to observe the enemy teams as they came together. There was no point to rushing, either someone was willing to have a target on their back or they weren't, anyone who wanted to be on his team would find him eventually.

"Hey, you, million-pointer…"

Izuku turned, not recognizing the voice of the person that called out to him. "Yeah, what is i—"

His mind went blank.


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Thanks for all the hero name suggestions last chapter! Lots of you had some really original ideas, and others reassured me that Izuku using the name of his quirk as part of his hero name wasn't all that strange, so that's an option I'm keeping mind as well. As for those of you that asked for him to be called the silver surfer, I probably should have mentioned that I already ruled that one out. It feels like too much like picking a low-hanging fruit to me, so sorry if that disappoints anyone.**

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter since it took ages to piece together. I've always found it really difficult to write a battle with multiple scenes taking place in quick succession so hopefully it turned out ok here. Let me know what you think!**

Chapter 16

Shatterpoint

oooOo Shota oOooo

**"YEAH! Are you ready!? Our up and coming heroes-to-be are banding together to form their own superteams! What should we be looking out for, Eraserhead!?"**

Aizawa grimaced, adjusting the bandages that were digging uncomfortably into the sensitive skin of his neck. He inwardly cursed Hizashi's uncanny ability to lure him into such troublesome responsibilities.

As if he didn't _already _have enough to deal with in his life.

The cumbersome wrappings only made what would have already been tiresome enough, into a _whole _ordeal… But he'd already accepted the job, and Eraserhead was nothing if not a man of his word.

_Sometimes._

Besides, his class had performed as he'd expected in the first event, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt, the difference that hands-on experience made in a hero. It'd be a lie to say he wasn't curious to see what his class of problem children would come up with next.

**"As Midnight has explained to the competitors, this event presents the chance for the lower-ranked students to overcome the frontrunners," **he drawled into his mic. **"However, teams starting with a higher point total have the advantage of being able to a play a purely defensive game. Depending on how the teams come together, there will be a number of squads targeted by the greater majority, and none more so than whoever joins up with Midoriya's ten million points."**

Riffing seamlessly off Aizawa's commentary, Present mic once more took on the role he was practically born for. **"There you have it, loyal listeners! Who'll brave the target of the ten-million for the chance of a guaranteed first place finish?! Take your bathroom breaks and grab your popcorn! The Cavalry Battle begins in just under ten minutes!"**

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

She'd taken her eyes off the nerd for two _damn _seconds and he'd already fucked off to god _knows_ where, but right now she couldn't waste her time chasing him down.

Not _yet _at least, the event hadn't even _started_ after all.

Katsumi's lips tugged up involuntarily, revealing a threatening grin that had those closest to her inching away as if any sudden motion would draw her attention. Her narrowed crimson eyes observed the extras running around like headless fucking chickens. Every competitor scrambled to join up with the strongest quirks they knew. The teams tended to stick to their own classmates, it was barely a month into the year, and they'd been far too busy to make friends in other classes.

As if any combination of quirks would be enough to take _her _down…

Seeing a familiar brunette bob-cut through a gap in the students, Katsumi reached out an arm, latching onto the collar of the girl's UA uniform with a vise-grip. "Round-face, get your ass over here, we're teaming up."

The shorter girl blinked owlishly, pointing at herself. "R-really, Katsumi-chan? You know I only came in 15th, right? It's not like you need my points or anything right?"

"Just join my team already," she said, looking away petulantly. "I'd rather deal with someone I know can at least handle themselves over another one of these side characters…"

For a moment they were both silent, before the bubbly girl actually had the _nerve _to giggle at her.

"Katsumi-chan… you're totally a big softie, aren't you?"

"Fuck off! I just need your quirk is all!"

Ochako frowned thoughtfully, "But we've barely tested that out at all… where _is _Midoriya-kun, anyway?"

Katsumi scowled, unwilling to admit that if she was forced to fight in the air, she would ultimately lose against Deku. In a battle of attrition, she'd definitely wear out faster than the nerd if she had to spam her quirk to stay airborne. But with a teammate that could remove gravity's hold on her… The grin came back.

Yeah, that'd do just fine.

Now to find someone who could take a beating…

As if answering her thoughts, a mob of Katsumi classmates descended on her location, all hounding to join the highest-pointed team without a neon ten-million target. Several of them could be promising additions to her comp, but when the shark-toothed asshole himself swaggered up to her, Katsumi was already fighting an internal battle with herself. Would acquiring such a perfect candidate to act as their front horse _really _be worth the trouble of teaming up with shitty-hair?!

"C'mon, Bakugo-chan! I _know _you want to take down the class-rep, right? C'_mooon, _ten-million!" He held out a fist, and she'd be lying to say the offer wasn't tempting.

Katsumi's mind ran on overdrive, doing her best to channel the skills of the very man she intended to overcome. She shivered at the thought, but no one could deny that Deku certainly could theorize quirk combos better than anyone else in her life. Depending on how strictly Midnight would enforce the rules of an ordinary Cavalry Battle, Katsumi could go a few different ways with her final member.

With the addition of Kirishima to her team, all she needed now was… _there._

"Yo, elbow-guy, get over here, the rest of you, fuck off!"

There was plenty of moaning and groaning from those that hadn't been chosen, but the whims of side characters truly did not concern her.

oooOoOoOooo

**"Aaannd, time's up!" **Midnight's call came over the loudspeaker, ceasing the team-selection phase of the second event.

Katsumi had assembled her team within the first five minutes of the allotted fifteen, so had spent the rest detailing her plans to abuse the loopholes that existed in the rules of a _standard _cavalry battle. "Everyone got that?"

"You're sure about this, Bakugo?" Sero said with a toothy grin, stretching his fingers out. His knuckles popped like miniature gunshots.

"Hah! It's crazy, but I'm beginning to see that's the norm with you, Bakugo-chan!"

Katsumi scowled, determinedly ignoring the whispered '_so manly'_ for the time being. There were more important things to worry about. Besides, Deku's continued absence was beginning to wear on her nerves. Now that the initial chaos of team selection had settled down a bit, she should have been able to spot him with whoever he'd chosen for his squad. Unless, of course, he was purposefully avoiding her…

Did he think he could _run _from her? There was no way he'd delude himself into thinking he could avoid her team for long in such an enclosed area, right? This wasn't a race, the nerd would have no choice but to take her on directly.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

A sharp nudge to his shoulder and the low drawling voice were the first things to register to Izuku's senses.

"Oi, super-class rep, time's ticking. let's see if you're as good as the rumors say."

His eyelids were like iron curtains as he slowly regained consciousness, but after a moment, it all came rushing back. His eyes shot open, blinking rapidly in the afternoon sun. _The Cavalry Battle!_ And someone had called out to him from behind, and then… nothing.

As his vision sharpened, it didn't take long to pick out the mass of Sports festival contestants, all grouped together in three to four-man teams. How long had it _been?_ The event hadn't _started _yet, had it?

A heavy arm settled over his shoulders. "Finally back with us, _Hero?"_

Izuku's gaze snapped to the unfamiliar teen, eyes narrowing suspiciously. He was tall. Quite a bit taller than Izuku's own formidable height and appearing even more so because of his chaotic lavender hair. The heavy bags under the boy's eyes and drooping eyelids gave him an overall gaunt appearance, about as far away from the look of a prospective hero as one could get. But Izuku knew better than to jump to conclusions. However, _that_ was in the absence of such damning evidence…

Was _this_ the guy responsible for his loss of memory?

"I see you catch on quickly. That's good, it'll save some time." The purple-haired student said calmly. "Needless to say, the allotted time for team selection has already ended, leaving me as your only choice for a teammate. You could forfeit, of course, but something tells me that option won't really appeal to you…"

Izuku's mind raced, considering every scenario that could have led to this very situation. There were several possibilities, but the boy with hair even more askew than his own was right. What Izuku was lacking most of all at the moment was _time_.

He sighed heavily, lamenting the situation being forced upon him. "You could have just asked, dude. It's not like I was swamped with volunteers or anything… Care to introduce yourself? We're going to be 'teammates' after all." The quotations were heavily evident in his tone

"Hitoshi Shinso," the teen drawled, clearly disbelieving Izuku's statement. "And I _did _ask," he added after a moment.

Izuku eyed the boy, analyzing the possible implications of his words, while also considering his plan of attack for the event. "Well that wasn't ominous or anything… I'm Midoriya Izuku, but it seems you already knew that…" A grin slowly stretched across his lips as he observed the various teams that had come together. "What kind of hero would I be if I couldn't roll with a twist as simple as this."

"That's the spirit, class-rep-kun."

Izuku's eye twitched as Shinso patted him companionably on the head. He swatted the other boy's hand away a moment later. "You certainly planned this out, huh? We can get away with a two-man team since we don't need to worry about adding students for a higher total score, but you're awfully confident that we can keep ahold of our own headband."

Shinso idly rubbed the back of his head, smiling falsely. "You gave quite the showing in the first event," he drawled, glancing up at Izuku's quirk as it flitted around above both of their heads. "Something tells me you still haven't shown us everything you can do… am I right?"

A smile tugged at his lips, "You tell me. You're the one that risked your chances in the final event on my abilities after all… Any way I can convince you to tell me how your quirk works so we can put it to use?"

The lavender-haired hero-hopeful glanced away, lazily scratching the back of his ear in thought. "Hmm… No, I don't think I will…"

Izuku laughed humorlessly. "Didn't think so." He knelt down on one knee, prompting Shinso to straddle his shoulders, already expecting to act as the rider of their pair. "I hope you're not afraid of heights, man."

He straightened up once Shinso had settled, observing the competition. A glance between several groups of cavalry teams had Izuku meeting a familiar pair of narrowed crimson eyes. He shrugged for lack of a better response as a vein visibly popped up on his girlfriend's forehead once she'd seen the student on his back. Did they have some kind of history? That was an above-average amount of fury even for Kacchan…

"I hope you know what you signed up for, Shinso. The ten million's one thing, but I'm afraid there's a few extra risks that come with being on my team…" Izuku grinned with anticipation.

**"Allright, listeners!" They've chosen their teams! They've made their plans! It's time to begin the countdown to this brutal battle royale!" **Present Mic's carrying cries echoed across the stadium, lighting a fire in every competitor's eyes. Unfortunately for Izuku, the majority of those vicious stares were directed _his_ way…

**"Three…"**

The malleable quicksteel imitating his left hand twitched anxiously.

**"Two…."**

The rest of his quirk returned to chest height, primed and ready for any command.

**"One…..**

**STAAAAAAAAART!"**

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Katsumi understood the draw of Deku's ten-million point headband, but even taking that into consideration, it was with a surprising amount of single-mindedness that nearly every team on the field rushed his position.

What the nerd was doing with that purple-haired _fuck_ on his shoulders could come later, but it wouldn't do to let such an opportune moment pass her up… "Uraraka."

"Right!" The brunette settled five digits around the bare skin of Katsumi's ankle, prompting an increasingly familiar sensation to come over her extremities.

The majority of the few weeks leading up to the sports festival had primarily been spent sparring with Deku to get him back into fighting shape. However, anyone that could call the nerd a friend would understand that spending any extended amount of time with him would entail a certain amount of experimentation.

It certainly wasn't the first time Katsumi had tried propelling herself at zero-gravity.

Using Shitty-hair's hardened body as a springboard, Katsumi rocketed herself at previously unattainable speeds on a vector parallel to the field below. The sudden acceleration took a moment to acclimate to, but the sheer _speed _was worth it.

She came upon the first cavalry team in a _fraction_ of a second.

The rider, an orange-haired girl that'd had her eyes firmly set on the ten-million, registered the incoming threat at the last second, frantically swapping her attention to Katsumi with widening eyes.

_Too late._

Katsumi kicked downward, a light explosion sending her sailing over the girl's outstretched fist even as it swelled to several times its original size, mid swing. But it didn't matter, the giant-fisted student was just too _slow_. Katsumi twisted her body in mid-air, two more precision explosions completing her three-point turn. The maneuver left her on a vector leading directly past her opponent's forehead.

The fiery blonde grinned predatorily even as the other rider registered how _close_ Katsumi had gotten in such a short time. But _perceiving_ the threat was only half the battle; it was far too late for her to physically react as Katsumi reached out, deftly plucking the white band off her head.

But she wasn't in the clear quite yet, as one of the group's horses, a curvy girl with wavy, seaweed-green hair, fuckin' _detached_ her left hand up to mid forearm, sending it through the air in pursuit of their stolen band.

Katsumi flinched at the action, a memory she'd rather have forgotten flashing through her mind for a split second. But compared to this bunch of B-listers, she was as battle-hardened as they came, retaining the wherewithal to blast the approaching limb to smithereens with an explosion from the bottom of her left foot.

The detonation doubled as the propulsion she needed to rocket away from the group altogether.

Too _fuckin' _easy.

**"OHH! And there she goes, Listeners! Team Bakugo makes a decisive first strike, leaving her horses altogether and pulling off a wicked flank on team Kendo! Is that even allowed!?" **Mic cried over the loudspeaker, barely drowning out the roar of her adoring fans. But speaking honestly, Katsumi was just as curious to hear the answer to his question, as rhetorical as he may have meant it.

**"She hasn't touched the ground, so I'll allow it!"**

Fuck yeah, _Midnight!_

Katsumi jettisoned herself towards another group of B-class heroes-in-training, relishing in the effortless way she could propel herself through the air. What normally required constant use of her quirk just to stay _airborne _now only took miniscule blasts to change trajectory. It was _glorious._

Katsumi approached the next team at increasingly extreme angles like some sort of demented human pinball. The tall, yellow motherfucker in the front attempted to slow her down with what she assumed was his quirk, shooting some kind of glue-like gunk out of his… _nozzle? _ Could that even be considered a _head? _ Either way, what may have been a formidable defense against most of these extras proved worthless in the face of her current mobility.

A blast from her left palm had Katsumi slipping to the right of the goopy projectile, still speeding towards the green-haired female student acting as the rider of this particular team. Katsumi reached out a palm, visualizing the moment she'd pass by at the perfect distance to snatch the headband for herself.

"WHAM!"

Without any warning, Katsumi crashed audibly into a solid… _something_ that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"What the _shit?_"

Katsumi kicked away from the wall(?) that had appeared before her, only for two more structures of a similar nature to crash down onto the field, each barely missing her by a hair.

"Nice one, Manga!" the rider called to her teammate, who Katsumi suspected was the source of these troublesome barriers.

"BANG! POW!" The a strangely echoing voice called, though each shout more and more hoarse by the second. On further inspection, Katsumi's suspicions were confirmed, a previously unnoticed member of the group Katsumi had been pursuing seemed to be _spawning_ these things with each cry. She was beginning to think that _none _of the Class B rejects had normal fucking heads.

_This_ kid had a damn speech bubble instead, and on closer inspection, she saw it seemed to mimic the barriers that were falling from the sky, making for one of the most bizarre quirks Katsumi had ever personally encountered.

She only hoped _Deku_ never got ahold of this guy, for his sake…

But now that she'd lost the element of surprise, dealing with such a troublesome ability wasn't worth the measly 125 points she could now see printed on the rider's headband. Katsumi kicked off where she hung from the blocky, concrete characters, rising high above the rest of her fellow competitors. She raised the index finger of her right hand, twirling it in a circle over her head. The meaning was clear to those that it concerned.

_Reset._

A white strip of material snaked out from where Katsumi's own team stood sentinel, coiling tightly around her waist and reeling her back to where she settled on their shoulders.

"Cutting it a bit close there, don't you think, Katsumi-chan," Uraraka huffed, steepling her fingers to release her quirk.

"Tch— hardly, Round Face." Katsumi slipped the headband she'd managed to lift from fat-hands' team—225, now that she'd gotten a better look at it—around her neck. "No point in wasting my time for such a shitty amount of points!"

**"And team Kodai finally repels team Bakugo's one-woman assault! That's what I call a quirk with character, YEAH!"**

Katsumi scowled petulantly. "Repelled?! It was a tactical retreat!"

"I don't know, Katsumi-chan, that sure sounds like something Midoriya-kun would say…"

"S—shut the fuck up, Round face!" She could almost _die _from the heat that raced up her neck.

"Woah, ok!" Shitty-hair intervened, helpfully for once. "Who's the next target, guys?"

"Well, the answer's obvious isn't it?" Sero chirped excitedly.

"Got that right, Elbows. Warmup's fucking over." _Hope you're ready, Deku._

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku had spent the early years of his teens hauling all kinds of junk as a part of his strength training, and consequently was no stranger to heavy loads. Comparatively, Shinso's lanky frame sitting atop his shoulders barely registered to him. For such a tall individual, the teen certainly didn't have the build common to most heroes. The difference in their fitness levels _could _be attributed to a difference in coursework between the hero and general education classes, but ultimately, Izuku felt that prospective heroes had a certain responsibility to self-sufficiency.

Realistically, Izuku could get away with a first-place finish in this event by simply taking to the sky and waiting out the clock, but that was _exactly_ what his competitors were expecting.

"Hang on, Shinso."

"H-hey! I thought we were flying away, man!"

"We will… eventually." Izuku shot off like a rocket, directly towards the multiple teams that had clearly intended to hunt him down. He almost immediately skipped to the side of the tendril-like _vines_ that surged from one of the faster squads towards his position.

Was that that girl's _hair?_

_Cool. _

The attack's range was impressive, but the thorny restraints lacked the maneuverability to keep up with his agility, and so Izuku deftly sidestepped the similar attacks that followed.

However, his fleet-footedness had apparently been taken into account. Izuku nearly stumbled in the next moment as the field beneath his bare feet suddenly morphed into a sludge-like consistency, but he would not be deterred. Several disks of quicksteel solidified over the quirk-trap, providing stable footholds to leap from.

A wall of those same thorny vines erupted from the ground, blocking Izuku's path as he approached the team of 1-B students. The group hesitated slightly, clearly startled by Izuku taking such aggressive actions when logically he should be the one being hunted.

It was that very hesitation that Izuku brutally took advantage of. He leaped towards the organic shield, gripped his dominant right hand around the main mass of quicksteel and molded it into a gleaming, familiar blade. He bisected the writhing vines with a mighty slash, completing the maneuver all in a fraction of a second.

"Tetsutetsu!" The teen heading their trio of horses called sharply, warning his rider.

The muscular hero-hopeful, who Izuku now recognized as the guy Kirishima had been quarreling with before the first event, seemed to shimmer in the afternoon sunlight, suddenly transforming into a chrome-like material. "C'mon, ya' cocky bastard!" He cried, slamming a pair of metallic fists together with a spark. "I've had plenty of iron today, _no _one can break my steel body!"

Izuku's eyes briefly widened at the quirk resembling his own so closely in appearance, but he had no time to marvel, not yet at least. His blade abandoned its form, melting and melding to the length of his right forearm which he promptly used to parry the rider's wild haymaker.

A lefty, _huh?_

Their limbs clashed with an ear-ringing clang, though it was soon evident that Izuku's strength was superior, tanking the strike with barely a flinch.

The rider, Tetsutetsu, scowled viciously, the strange markings around his eyes making the expression even more striking. "What the hell! First that red-headed prick, and now someone else is copying my _steel?!"_

Izuku leveled the boy with a flat stare. "Not quite, friend." The quicksteel coating his arm along with the rest slowly seeped towards the point of contact, solidifying into a makeshift shackle.

Izuku grinned seeing that Shinso had the wherewithal to reach out and snag the bandana tied around the iron-boy's head while he was restrained. Tetsutetsu yanked his arm back in an attempt to defend against the theft, but unlike against the overwhelming strength of Tomura's Nomu, the hero-in-training's physical strength was helpless when faced with Izuku's quicksteel prison.

"Sorry!" Izuku called cheerfully as he kicked off the boy's chest and out of range of the reaching vines that had finally caught up with his sudden onslaught.

His bare feet settled into the frigid surface of his skyboard as it coalesced beneath him, letting out an exultant laugh when Hitoshi yelped at their rapid ascent in the next moment.

"You—you're a bloody madman," Shinso gasped through labored breathing. He tied the stolen 705 headband around his neck to join the 10,000,080 he'd already been wearing

"Hardly," Izuku grinned, straightening out of his crouch when he'd reached an altitude that he was happy with. He ceased his ascent, gradually circling at eye-level with the highest balcony seats of the arena, yet still far below the partial overhang of the stadium roof. Izuku knew that quirk use was allowed and even encouraged for this particular event, but they probably wouldn't be too happy with him leaving the stadium altogether.

**"I—I can barely believe what I'm seeing here, listeners! You all saw him dominate the obstacle course in record time, and Midoriya's back at it again with a showstopping performance on a two-man squad! Is there _anything _this kid can't do?!"**

_Aww, stop it, Mic, you'll make me blush…_

Izuku could feel the eyes of nearly every spectator in the stadium on him in that moment, the notion only amplified by the camera-drones that followed his movements, plastering his own face across the massive displays arranged around the venue. "Say hello to the world, Shinso…" he called, giving the nearest camera a lazy two-finger salute.

"Y-you can let me down now, we're not technically on the ground after all…" the boy said, frowning slightly at the ground so far below.

Izuku willed his skyboard into a more stable platform, crouching down slightly to let his impromptu teammate down. He peered over the edge, no longer bothered by extreme heights, and unwilling to take his eyes off of the action unfolding below.

"Rest up while you can, but you need to be able to move at a moment's notice. Something tells me we won't be able to sit up here for long…"

oooOo Shoto oOooo

Todoroki's heterochromatic eyes tracked Midoriya's path overhead, even as Yaoyorozu defended his group's right flank from a single, disembodied hand that'd been trying to snag his headband for the last few minutes. The girl's mastery of her creation quirk had proven as useful as he'd suspected. The staff clutched in his right hand served the dual purpose of grounding he and his team and putting him in direct contact with the arena so he could cast his ice attacks with impunity.

Shoto's gaze locked onto the team responsible for the stealth attacks, a mere _thought _sent a precise blast of ice to restrain them for the time being. The troublesome green-haired girl, along with the rest of her team, were beaten back immediately with a deluge of frost. The attack left them encased in ice from the waist down, the lone appendage frozen meters away.

It'd keep them for being a nuisance, but on closer inspection, the team's rider wasn't even _wearing_ her headband anymore. They had nothing to gain from fighting here.

Todoroki tugged thoughtfully at the multiple headbands hanging around his neck. Combining Kaminari's medium-strength electricity attacks and Yaoyorozu's insulation left their opponents vulnerable to an almost absurd degree. Freezing them in place had practically been overkill, but the result had been the collection of headbands he'd amassed in the short period since the start of the event.

His eyes returned to the _real_ threat circling overhead.

**"The timer's just hit ten minutes and it looks like things have kicked off into a free-for-all down in the pit, Eraser-head! I'd ask who gonna come out on top, but it looks like Midoriya's way ahead of us!"**

Aizawa leaned away from the deafening tones of his co-commentator, while his eyes constantly followed the problem child and his teammate through the air. **" I won't claim to know how Midoriya and Shinso came to be on the same team, but their cooperation puts the other squads in a precarious position. The cavalry battles of the past have usually devolved into a fight over the ten million-point headband, but the absurd amount of mobility offered by Midoriya's quirk and a small team throws a bit of a wrench in that strategy. Assuming team Shinso holds on to their current point value, the lower-point headbands become much more valuable in this scenario."**

**"Now that's what I call a homeroom teacher's insight, folks! Nice commentary!"**

Todoroki scowled, recognizing the truth in his sensei's assessment of the situation. He could reach Midoriya's height going all-out with his ice, but without a suitable distraction, even burdened by the weight of his single teammate, Shoto knew that that the quicksteel-user would be able to avoid such a straightforward attack.

The glance to his father watching stoically in the stands did nothing to temper his increasingly sour mood. Nor did it help his special awareness.

"Todoroki!"

In his split-second moment of inattention, a team of 1-B students headed by a seemingly laid-back blonde boy, slipped past their position and snagged Shoto's original headband right off his forehead.

Two-toned eyes narrowing dangerously, Todoroki willed a crackling path of ice after the thieving group. The students acting as the team's horses were quick, but to expect to outrun his creeping ice was simply too much to ask of them. They would be overcome in mere moments.

That is… until a blazing inferno of disturbingly familiar orange flame sprang up between the two groups, sublimating the approaching ice after a brief power struggle.

Todoroki stood, mouth agape, as his old man's own accursed flame was turned against him.

"_Ohhh?" _A high, silver-tongued voice called playfully. "You seemed so awfully proud of that ice of yours." A flickering flame gradually became visible as the billowing water vapor cleared. "But you had _another _amazing power hidden in there the whole time! Imagine that!" He laughed as if discussing the weather.

Disbelief gave way to overwhelming fury as Todoroki watched the boy so casually handle _that _man's power. He exhaled heavily, frost ghosting from his lips as a _cold,_ razor focus asserted itself once more. The blonde boy was merely a competitor, he wasn't _him, _and consequently knew nothing of the power he held.

But that didn't mean he'd let such a slight go without consequence.

Shoto jabbed his staff into the ground, and a jagged, unrestrained wave of ice—one that was several times larger than his previous attack—rocketed from the arena floor towards the thief's team. The blonde thrust his left hand out, trying once more to match the ice with his stolen flames, but quickly encountered the very same weakness that was the origin of nearly every hardship in Shoto's admittedly short life.

Without the cryokinesis to counteract the heat, Hellflame roasts the user alive with extended use. Even Shoto's father, who'd undergone _years_ of torturous training to resist the heat of his own flames suffered in prolonged battles. That very same drawback would be _this_ fool's downfall.

"Burns, doesn't it?!" Todoroki called over the hissing of the clashing elements. Even as his opponent's blaze began to die down, he was unrelenting in his assault. "That's the problem with fire… all it's good for… is harm."

The flagging inferno was finally snuffed out, the team of 1-B students revealed after a moment encased in a macabre ice sculpture, leaving only their heads exposed to the open air. The crowd gasped in tandem, though whether it was at the brutality of his attack or another reason entirely, Shoto neither knew nor cared.

**"Aaaand team Todoroki puts the members of team Monoma on ice! That's a bit much, don't you think!?" **Present Mic cried over the loudspeakers.

**"It's kosher!" **Midnight clarified with a snap of her bullwhip. **"Todoroki's quirk was never used to attack their team directly."**

**"There you have it, folks! Seven minutes left until time is up! **Present Mic called, saving Todoroki a glance at the clock.

Retrieving the multiple headbands worn by the immobilized team of 1-B students was merely a formality, and by the time Shoto had secured them around his neck, his team was firmly in second place ahead of Bakugo's, who'd apparently snagged a few headbands of her own since the event had started. But second place was as far as he'd go without Midoriya's ten-million point headband. Shoto had already been bested in one event, it wasn't a feeling he intended to experience again.

A quick glance across the field revealed the girl in question, prepping to take to the sky herself, making this the perfect opportunity to make his move. Todoroki allowed himself a nearly imperceptible grin. It was time to level the playing field a bit.

"Get ready, It's time for what we spoke of earlier."

"On it!" his team responded in tandem.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

The temperature was dropping.

"Get ready," Izuku murmured, crouching low over the edge of his circular platform of quicksteel as it slowly revolved around the arena. While he was simply observing the battle below, he had no need for the streamlined design of his skyboard, but now that Todoroki was making his move…

"What are you—"

Shinso's query was immediately cut off by an arcane thundering shook the venue. A tidal wave of ice, branching the entire width of the stadium, erupted from the ground and lanced diagonally towards their location. Izuku abandoned his slow revolution and dodged up and away from the growing ice wall. He barely had the time to replace Shinso atop his shoulders, but even in the chaos, Izuku's balance was impeccable.

Here they come…

The wave of ice was a formidable attack on its own, but more importantly, it doubled as a way to actually reach the height that he'd been hovering at. While Izuku had gotten a few passing glances at Todoroki's team when spying from above, this was the first time he'd gotten a look up close. Given momentum by the shifting ice at their rear, the squad of four blazed a path straight up the frosty slope on roller blades that he assumed were a product of Momo's quirk.

Todoroki had truly assembled a formidable squad, but Izuku had been watching them take teams down left and right since the even had _begun_. They generally followed the same attack pattern, leading with Kaminari, their own members insulated with Momo's creation, and crushing the incapacitated target with Todoroki's overwhelming ranged attacks.

Considering his own method of offense heavily relied on a relatively conductive metal, the choice was obvious.

Izuku rocketed forward, adjusting his posture to counteract Shinso's weight atop his shoulders and widening his stance as his skyboard skimmed over the frigid surface of the glacier, clouds of frost left in his wake.

He was upon them in seconds.

Izuku ducked under Iida's grasping hand and slipping towards their left flank, intent on disrupting their combination attack before it could begin. He knew how mentally taxing Momo's quirk could be in the heat of battle, so his first target should have been obvious. The fact that Todoroki struggled with attacking from that side was merely a bonus.

The black-haired beauty did not, however, sit and wait for defeat. Abandoning the insulation sheet that she'd been constructing, Momo instead yanked a staff out of the exposed skin of her right shoulder, swinging it with a confidant, double-handed grip.

Crude as it may have been, Izuku couldn't help but be impressed with rapid creation, but the strike was nothing in the face of his prodigious reflexes. The bo staff met the back of his left hand with a humming twang, his quicksteel prosthetic the only mass of his quirk not currently dedicated to his skyboard, but it served its purpose nonetheless.

Izuku felt Shinso shift on his shoulders as he reached for one of Todoroki's many headbands, but the extra time he'd need to snatch it completely was a second too long, they needed to move _now._

Izuku abandoned his assault completely, leaping out of range of the explosion that detonated in their faces.

"Deku, you mother _fucker! _Think I'd let you off that easy?!_" _Katsumi bulldozed her way into the skirmish, letting off a concussive blast right where he'd been moments earlier. Though, if he hadn't dodged in time, that explosion would have done a bit more damage than he'd consider reasonable in event like a cavalry battle.

She'd probably assumed he'd dodge, but one of these days, Katsumi's overly high expectations of him would be the death of him.

Izuku leveled off their flight, turning to look over his shoulder, expecting to see Kacchan falling to the glacial slope below. Instead, he was met with narrowed crimson eyes, and _far_ too close for comfort.

It was only the years he'd spent sparring with the girl that saved him in that moment. He danced backwards along the length of his skyboard, the blazing right-handed palm strike barely skimming the tip of his nose.

Hanging on to Shinso's legs so the boy wouldn't be sent flying, Izuku lashed out with a kick to fend off the girl's sudden assault. He needn't have bothered, however. Another point-blank explosion towards Izuku's face sent the girl careening through the air in the opposite direction, leaving her free to reposition however she liked.

So _that's _what was going on.

He'd caught glimpses of Katsumi experimenting with zero gravity, but it appeared that she and Ochako had finally put it to use. Izuku couldn't help but be impressed by their combination, but now wasn't the time to admire how magnificent Kacchan was in combat.

"Midoriya, dodge!" Shinso called out suddenly.

He swerved through the air as a weighted capture net careened through the space he'd just vacated. A glance towards Todoroki's team revealed Momo holding a smoking launcher, clearly the source of the unexpected projectile.

Todoroki gestured sharply with his right hand, what Izuku knew was usually a prequel to the boy using his ice powers, but was barely given a chance for it to register before Katsumi zipped past his location once more, her weightless form boosted by finely controlled explosions from the soles of her feet.

Was she getting even _faster?!_

The girl was approaching levels of speed he'd experienced in his time training with Chi-sensei, and his eyes were having _just_ as much trouble keeping up with her movements as she ricocheted around his head, passing in and out of his blind spots with impunity.

"_DIE!"_

Izuku whipped around, morphing the quicksteel used for his skyboard into a shield over his splayed hand to block the impending explosion. He felt the force of the blow in the next second; but it curiously lacked all the weight of Katsumi's usual attacks. Perhaps a side effect of Uraraka's quirk? It would make sense that lacking the actual _weight_ of one's body would lessen the momentum they carried on impact.

Nonetheless, the power of the explosion itself sent Izuku, Shinso still hanging on for dear life, careening into Todoroki's sloping glacier. At least he remained cognizant enough to land on his feet.

Spidery cracks spread as Izuku's quicksteel-coated feet impacted the frosty surface, but this was the _worst _possible situation he could be in. It hadn't taken long for Izuku to pick up on one of the few limitations to Todoroki's cryokinesis, namely, needing to be in direct contact with the surface or object he intended to freeze. But now Izuku was already _touching_ the ice of Shoto's own creation, the situation had grown dire before he'd even realized.

Multiple frosty tendrils erupted from the frozen surface, bearing down on his location from multiple angles even as Katsumi jetted towards his perch once more. In Izuku's current position, pinned between an explosive blonde and Shoto's icy chaos, he was well and truly out of options.

Sane options, at least.

The quicksteel that had once served as a shield against Kacchan's devastating explosion, merged with his prosthetic, surging up the length of his arm like some kind of symbiotic life form until it covered his entire torso.

"Midoriya… what are you—"

With a twist at his waist, Izuku slammed a quicksteel-bolstered fist, not into the animated pillars of ice, but the source. The glacier beneath his feet.

oooOo Shoto oOooo

For a moment, Todoroki'd thought that he'd finally had Midoriya cornered.

He should have known better…

Midoriya, when it came to sheer strength, overshadowed most of their class, and perhaps even some pros… Todoroki was well aware of that fact. But as their green-haired class rep struck the ice beneath their feet with a glinting metallic fist, Shoto was given a front-row seat to exactly _how _powerful the boy was.

The result was as sudden as it was devastating.

The once feather-thin cracks in the ice spread throughout the entire structure, and in the next moment, the glacier splintered into countless minivan-sized pieces, and consequently sent his team plummeting to the field below.

Where moments earlier his team was so surely on the offensive, in one move Midoriya had thrown the entire arena into chaos.

"What the hell is the rep _thinking?!_" Kaminari wailed as they fell through the air.

"As expected of Midoriya-san," Iida shouted, remaining focused despite being pelted with frost and other debris.

Abandoning offense altogether, Todoroki instead turned his attention to safely landing his team on the rapidly approaching ground, doing his best to avoid the ice crumbling alongside them.

"Keep our formation stable, I won't be able to catch us all if we split apart!" A flurry of frost whizzed along with the rushing air, obscuring his vision completely. It was fortunate that the ice falling alongside them provided enough of a medium to create a slope to slow their landing a bit.

"Todoroki-kun!"

His eyes shot up at Yaoyorozu's call, widening further as Midoriya's team, appearing as nothing more than a green and silver blur, rocketed between several shards of ice in a prodigious display of agility. How Midoriya remained surefooted enough to jump between the tumbling shards of ice was anyone's bet, but Shoto had his hands full simply keeping his team upright, let alone defending against such a tenacious attack.

A final leap put the duo on an intersecting path with their own, Midoriya's poison-green eyes narrowed with a razor focus making Todoroki's blood run cold in a _completely_ different manner than his quirk.

An uncomfortably familiar weight settled over the dual element user in that moment. It was the first time he'd ever been targeted by his classmate so candidly, the first time since the beginning of the sports festival that Izuku Midoriya had pursued him with such frightening _intent._

His first experience being _prey._

Perhaps it was that his right side was so preoccupied with their landing, who knows, it could have been his body's instinctual reaction to a perceived threat, but as Midoriya rapidly gained on their position, and without any conscious input on his part, a _malevolent_ orange flame sprouted along the length of his left arm, singeing the sleeve of his PE uniform in an instant.

What was he _doing?_

Frozen between putting the involuntary flames to use or being rendered helpless in the face of Midoriya's last minute assault, Todoroki found himself for once faced with a crippling indecision.

Hellflame flared up in response to his racing emotions, but as his opponent reached out with a metal-coated hand, he feared that he'd be late to react either way. Kaminari's quirk was useless in this situation, and both Momo and Iida were busy keeping their formation steady.

He wouldn't make it in time.

**"AAAnnnd time's…. UP!"**

…

_What?_

Todoroki remained primed for a fight, but he needn't have bothered. Midoriya had halted his pursuit almost immediately, his bizarre quirk morphing back into the board he so frequently used. He glided away, seemingly without a care in the world, effortlessly dodging the last of the debris falling to the field below.

The sudden shift in the boy's actions was startling to Todoroki whose flames still danced threateningly along the length of his arm. And it wasn't until moments later that he'd gained enough control to stamp down on the unwelcome inferno.

Todoroki listlessly guided his team to the ground on a pathway of frost, the cries of the announcer and the crowd barely registering to his senses. His team had secured a decisive second-place finish, but the results paled in comparison to his actions and what exactly they _meant_ going forward.

Heterochromatic eyes narrowed at the green-haired boy that landed so gracefully nearby.

Shoto _seethed_ with fury. Not at Midoriya of course; holding his competitor at fault for _competing_ would be, as Aizawa-sensei would say, the height of irrationality.

No, his ire was firmly directed inwardly. Did he _really _have so little control? Would he default back to _that _man's power at the slightest threat?! Todoroki internalized the doubt as best he could, not even deigning his father with a passing glance as he absorbed the information Midnight was relaying onstage.

He had to do _better._

Midoriya had coaxed those _damned_ flames out of him, effortlessly, and against his will, but it could_ never_ happen again.

Taking a few deep breaths to regain a level head, Todoroki accepted a hand down from his perch from Iida, the studious boy going on about their performance in the event. He nodded along politely, but couldn't help his constant observation of Midoriya where he stood with his single, unremarkable teammate. Regardless of the boy's motivations, his strength alone made him an opponent that _had_ to be overcome.

Todoroki knew firsthand that power was often the result of overcoming hardship, so what was it that drove the green-haired teen to such lengths? Izuku was a puzzle that Shoto simply couldn't solve…

Well, there was one way to find out…

Against his better judgement, Todoroki let out a deep sigh and made his way over to the green-haired boy, steeling himself for the conversation he intended to broach.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku was obviously secure in his team's placing in the Cavalry battle, having retained their ten-million-point headband for the entire allotted time frame. But the results clearly displayed across every screen in the arena came with a bit of a surprise.

**1.** **Team Shinso - 10,000,705**

**2.** **Team Todoroki - 1,625**

**3.** **Team Bakugo - 1,290**

**4.** **Team Kendo - 605**

He'd seen the team led by the orange-haired girl from class 1-B frozen by Todoroki earlier on in the event, but apparently they'd freed themselves soon enough to capitalize on the mayhem he'd caused in the last couple of seconds.

"Deku, what the _fuck_ were you doing on Skeletor's team?!

Katsumi stomped her way over from where Izuku could see her team watching with mixed emotions. Uraraka, having spent the most time with the explosive blonde since the start of term, simply appeared amused, having expected _some_ kind of confrontation once the event had ended. Krishima and Sero, however, looked like they didn't know _what _to think.

But more importantly, _Skeletor?_

Izuku glanced over at Shinso where he stood a few meters away, trying to match the nickname to the person. The teen had separated himself from Izuku almost immediately once Katsumi had made her presence known. That, combined with the fact that the blonde had clearly already formed her own opinion of the boy, was enough to connect the dots. Kacchan had mentioned a 'Skeletor' in passing, but never went into more detail concerning their encounter.

"Ah, the rude one," Shinso drawled, cutting through Izuku's thoughts. "Come to make more empty promises? How's it feel down there in third place?"

Izuku's eyes shot open at the slight, uncomfortably aware of the impending explosion. But as soon as he had that thought, another, more important realization asserted itself.

He spun around, clamping his right hand over his girlfriend's mouth, restraining her rage-fueled struggles with his left. Crimson irises flashed dangerously as the girl's palms sparked even moreso, but instead of cowering, Izuku leveled her with a glare that conveyed the seriousness of the situation.

Izuku may have cooperated with Shinso for a single event, but it had hardly been of his free will. He was well aware that from this point onward, they were nothing more than competitors, and knowing Shinso, that included employing any underhanded tactics he could. Considering that his memory loss had begun when he'd responded to Shinso's call, it only made sense that his quirk, whatever it may have been, required _some_ kind of trigger to activate.

Izuku still needed a bit of time to work out the finer details, but in the meantime, there was no way in Tartarus that he'd let Kacchan speak around the guy, no matter _how _pissed it made her.

Katsumi stilled in his arms after a moment, nonverbally demanding an explanation with a glare as he released his hold on her.

He shook his head. _Not here._

With his warning delivered, Izuku returned his gaze to Shinso himself, observing the scowl slowly creeping across his gaunt features. _Skeletor indeed. _

Unwilling to speak with the boy any further, Izuku instead bowed slightly, hoping the boy would understand the sentiment. The action earned a scoff from Kacchan by his side, but Izuku didn't let it bother him.

Shinso walked away after that, slipping back into the crowd of students, perhaps looking for any of his classmates that made it through to the next round. Izuku wasn't quite sure if any other general studies students had made it past the obstacle course, let alone moved on to the tournament event, but Shinso was enough of an unknown to worry about on his own.

Izuku stood wordlessly at Kacchan's side, neither needing to address the results of the events thus far. They both knew that everything would be settled for real during the one on one tournament, all that was left to do now was wait for the matchups themselves.

They didn't have to wait too long.

Midnight snapped her whip to gain the attention of the assembled students. **"Due to logistics with balancing the tournament brackets, the two highest ranking students from the fifth-place team will _also _move on! **

The team in question, which also happened to be the squad whose headband Izuku had stolen initially, seemed to have a quiet discussion amongst themselves. A moment later, the captain with the steel-body quirk, and the girl with vines for hair stepped forward with determination shining in their eyes.

Izuku had a feeling that just because the ten-million points were no longer relevant, didn't mean he no longer had a target on his back. Not that it meant much in a tournament setting, he'd have to defeat everyone in the end anyway, after all.

**"Now, behold!" **Midnight gestured sharply with the hand not holding her whip, the motion having an interesting effect on the woman's _attributes, _but Izuku was far more interested in the display behind her.

The largest monitor lit up with a jaunty _ping, _the first-round brackets plastered in bold print mirrored in every screen in the stadium. The rumbling crowd mimicked Izuku's racing heart as he took in the names of every relevant matchup.

**– First Round Matchups –**

**Midoriya Izuku - Tokage Setsuna**

**Kendo Itsuka - Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu**

**Todoroki Shoto - Komori Kinoko**

**Sero Hanta - Yaoyorozu Momo**

**Bakugo Katsumi - Kirishima Eijiro**

**Uraraka Ochako - Yanagi Reiko**

**Shinso Hitoshi - Shiozaki Ibara**

**Iida Tenya - Kaminari Denki**

"Tch—" Katsumi scowled, "Looks like you lucked out, nerd, you've postponed getting your ass kicked for now. See ya' in the finals…"

He laughed lightly in response. "You sure you won't have trouble with all the 'side characters,' Kacchan?" Seeing that they wouldn't be in 'battle mode' for a while, he slipped his hand into her own, nudging her shoulder playfully. She determinedly avoided his gaze, but he smiled when she didn't pull her hand away.

Izuku turned away from the screen as someone tapped him softly on the shoulder. Out of a newborn paranoia, Izuku made sure to check who it was before uttering a word, but as he took in Todoroki's familiar appearance, he relaxed a fraction. He was unsure of what the stoic boy wanted, but at least conversing with him, Izuku didn't run the risk of his mind being tampered with.

"I suppose you might be growing tired of this, Midoriya, but would you care to take a walk? There are some things I'd like to discuss with you…"


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: Been a while I suppose, but I've been writing the whole time, bit of a longer chapter to show for it. Enjoy!**

The Battles Begin

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Izuku's head swiveled slowly as he glanced around the area surrounding the rear exit of the Sport Festival stadium. Still a bit fatigued from the cavalry battle, he'd seated himself upon a hastily constructed bench of quicksteel, floating at a height that left the soles of his bare feet brushing lightly against the cool concrete floor.

It was a typical summer day in Musutafu, with not a cloud in the sky, a beam of afternoon sunlight cutting across Izuku's torso from the nearby doorway.

His gaze returned to Todoroki's unflinching stare, the grey of his right side appearing almost black, since unlike Izuku, he stood completely in shadow. The look was cold, so vastly different from Kacchan's fiery glares, but not hostile in the slightest. Nevertheless, Izuku found it almost eerie how blank the boy could appear at times, a mask that seemed to come effortlessly to him, though Izuku had occasionally seen other emotions flash across his features.

"I was overwhelmed," Todoroki said levelly, breaking the silence that had mounted between them. He glanced down to his left hand, staring at it as if the appendage had personally offended him. "In a moment of weakness, I abandoned a vow that I'd lived by for years." He paused, tilting his head with obvious curiosity. "What is it about _you_ that prompted such a response?"

Izuku frowned in thought, lacking the context behind Todoroki's odd statement. But he wasn't stupid, there was only one incident that seemed out of the ordinary in the previous event…

"I assume you're referring to your flames?" Izuku questioned, just to avoid any misunderstandings.

"I admit that I grossly misjudged your abilities, Midoriya," Shoto said, confirming his suspicions with his lack of denial. "I feared that, despite your quick recovery, your injuries would cripple your overall combat effectiveness, but you've proven that I was sorely mistaken."

Izuku nodded neutrally. "Right… so then what is this all—"

"You know my father is the rank two hero, Endeavor, correct?" Todoroki cut over him sharply.

He did. So perhaps this concerned the man more than the quirk itself… Izuku had always found his classmate's over-reliance on his cryokinesis strange, but the boy's ice had always been absurdly powerful. Avoiding the destructive properties of fire in non-lethal fights wasn't unreasonable at all… but maybe there was more to it after all…

"I may have jumped the gun earlier, but the sentiment hasn't changed. Now that my old man has seen _your_ power for himself, I've only got that much more reason to crush you with my ice alone."

Izuku remained silent, an uncomfortable feeling creeping into his gut. This was probably the most he'd heard Todoroki speak _ever_, and he had a feeling it wasn't without reason.

"Have you ever heard of… quirk marriages?"

The uncomfortable feeling grew sharply, latching onto Izuku's innards and twisting them into a painful knot. His expression must have twisted in a similar manner, since Todoroki nodded as if his suspicions had been confirmed.

"I'd have been surprised if someone like you _hadn't_."

"I… also know that they've been outlawed for several decades now…" Izuku hedged, hoping that this conversation wasn't headed in the direction he'd expected.

"Of _course _they are…" Todoroki huffed, his expression contorting into a humorless imitation of grin. It looked wrong on his face, as it were never meant to be there…

"My father has been powerful ever since graduating UA, pursuing the titled of the strongest hero with a singlemindedness that could be terrifying at times… Had he been born in another era, he'd probably have been considered an unrivaled prodigy. But of course, with All Might at the summit…" Todoroki trailed off, a ghost of a genuine smile appearing for a moment before it was wiped away just as quickly.

"Along with that physical strength of course, came the status and clout one would expect from even less popular heroes. His long-running record of cases solved opened certain doors that one would normally consider… _less_ that morally sound… All to gain the ideal quirk to pair with his own…

Whether the man _actually_ broke the law or not matters little, I'm sure that there's some obscure loophole that allowed him to buy the favor of my mother's parents. Regardless of the exact series of events that led to that point, Mother was _never_ in that house of her own volition, I at least know _that _much…" Todoroki's eyes grew haunted, as if reliving a particular harrowing nightmare.

"—'I can't stand to see that left side of yours…'" Shoto raised his left hand, unusually steady as he obscured the livid scar around his eye. His gaze snapped back to Izuku's own. "She said that, you know… before throwing scalding water in my face…"

It was so much _worse _that he'd imagined.

Izuku had never had the highest opinion of the Number Two Hero, but as Shoto illustrated his early years living in the Todoroki household, his impression of the 'hero' quickly shifted from indifference to disgust. Though _his_ second-hand loathing of the man's actions obviously paled in comparison to the overwhelming _hatred_ harbored by the son.

Yet it was the life of Shoto's mother that was the true tragedy here.

Izuku could see it in the boy's blue and grey eyes that even now, he held no ill-will towards the woman that, in a moment of weakness, gave into her baser fears and irreparably damaged his face, and perhaps even more critically, whatever relationship they'd managed to build in spite of the circumstances…

Todoroki had the _ideal_—in the most ironic sense of the word—origin story of someone destined for greatness. The kind of story you'd expect from the fictional heroes of old, before the evolution of quirks made the stories a reality…

"—In short, not using my left side against you was my revenge on him," Todoroki said, seemingly glaring right _through_ Izuku. "Never using my rotten father's quirk… no... by rising to the top _without _using it… I'll have denied him everything."

Izuku was speechless for a moment, unable to process everything he'd been told in the last few minutes at once. They each had their own reasons to aim for the top, but where Todoroki lived with the crippling expectations of heroing royalty, Izuku had worked his way up from the concrete, starting with nothing and turning it into his strength.

The green-haired hero couldn't help but think how _exhausting_ that must have been…

Todoroki turned to walk away, apparently satisfied with how well he'd conveyed his resolve, and for a moment, Izuku was going to let him go, doubtful that words alone could ever hold enough weight to influence his beliefs. But something spurred him to act regardless—he couldn't quite accept Todoroki's self-restriction without voicing his own thoughts about it.

But did he even have the _right?_ How could he judge his classmate's resolve, having never experienced anything that came _close_ to his suffering.

Steeling his nerves and bulldozing his way through any doubts he had, Izuku willed his quicksteel platform through the air, quickly cutting off the retreating hero-in-training.

"I won't act as if I'll every understand what you went through, Todoroki…" Izuku said, kicking his feet idly and glancing away in thought.

Todoroki merely stared back impassively, waiting patiently for whatever he had to say. There was that mask again… and after divulging such a harrowing tale as well…

"What is it?" Todoroki said after a moment.

Izuku pulled his legs up and crossed them, the shape of his quicksteel perch warping and shifting to stabalize. His eyes returned to Todoroki's, casually observing the burning fury that was so meticulously contained behind the cold exterior…

"My quirk was actually incredibly mediocre when I was younger…" Izuku said with a wistful smile.

Ah, so _that _earned a reaction.

The dual quirked boy's eyes had widened slightly at the sudden tangent, and Izuku didn't blame him. As aloof as Todoroki always tried to appear, he'd probably been expecting some kind of judgement on his home life, and braced himself accordingly, but the direction Izuku had taken must have startled him.

Since he and Kacchan had come to UA, only the blonde knew of his old reputation in school, and Izuku knew that his girlfriend wouldn't have said a word to any of their new classmates. She'd been even keener to leave those days behind them than _he _had.

"Kinda hard to believe, huh?" He chuckled lightly, scratching the back of his neck. "But yeah, plenty of emitters like yours or Kacchan's quirk seem plenty flashy when they first manifest, but **Quicksteel** started off barely as big as a grapefruit, and just about as threatening." He willed an orb of the original size to float between them.

Izuku grinned in remembrance, leaning forward eagerly. "I couldn't even _move_ it! It'd only react to my emotions, like a glorified mood ring!" he chirped. "You'd never believe how many times I got in trouble for disrupting class before I got it under control..."

Shoto leaned forward after a pause, "So… how did it become like…this?"

Oh… so the teen _could_ show a bit of curiosity. Izuku wasn't exactly sure of where he was going with this story, but if it ended up being nothing more than a conversation between peers, then he couldn't think of anyone who needed someone in his corner more than Shoto. But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself.

"Meditation helped with the unwanted movement," Izuku said, leaning back onto the floating platform. "And as for the rest…" he grinned, coating the flesh of his right hand with the separated mass so it matched his left. "You'll just have to wait and see! We are competitors after all," he added with a grin.

Todoroki sighed, but didn't seem too upset at the information Izuku had withheld.

"I'll tell you what, Todoroki, _when _we settle things in the semifinals, I'll tell you _all_ about quicksteel, as long as you do the same for me." He leaned forward eagerly, "I've been dying to get a closer look at how your ice works… y'know when you're _not_ trying to impale me…"

"R-right…" Todoroki said hesitantly, earning an internal laugh from Izuku. Of all the things to be intimidated by… though he supposed his quirk obsession _could_ be a bit overwhelming at times…

"As far as your 'pledge' goes," Izuku said lightly, watching as Todoroki immediately stiffened up. "I don't know whether your decision is 'right' or not… I don't think either of us can be truly objective… But for someone to be born with a quirk so amazing and purposefully _not _use it…" Izuku trailed off, leaving the rest unspoken, but fixed Todoroki with a fierce stare. "I'll come at you with _everything _I've got, Todoroki. I hope that you don't regret your decision in the end…"

Having said his piece, Izuku stood suddenly, his quicksteel morphing beneath his feet as he gradually gained altitude. Fully taking advantage of the temporary permission they'd been granted for quirk usage off school grounds, he soared into the sky, relishing in the freedom of flight he was often denied.

Izuku knew that his class's assigned seating was located in the upper levels of the stadium, so he figured it'd be faster to fly over the top than to navigate the maze-like interior. And if he could spot some of the heroes milling about the stadium with his aerial view, then it couldn't hurt to get an autograph or two...

He barely registered how the wind whipped at his hair, the recent conversation with Todoroki weighing heavily on his mind…

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

"I know its not really a huge part of the festival, but I can't help but get into the spirit of the recreational events too!" Uraraka said with stars in her eyes.

Katsumi pulled the brunette back by the collar, growing more and more uncomfortable with how far she was leaning over the railing to peer down onto the field. Her eye twitched at the brunette's enthusiasm. "Don't get your panties in a twist, Round face! Those are the events for side characters!"

The bubbly girl was still outfitted in a flashy orange UA cheer uniform, courtesy of the purple fucker and Sparky's admittedly elaborate ruse. The lengths those two would go to get a girl to show some leg was a bit disturbing, but she could at least respect their tenacity if nothing else.

Katsumi shuddered at the scenario she'd so carefully dodged, grateful that she'd been adamant in her refusal when Uraraka had approached her half an hour previously. Katsumi _knew_ it hadn't been a requirement of the festival in previous years, but she'd still almost been swayed by the girl's pleading gaze. The girl's wide, doe eyes should be illegal in her opinion.

Needless to say, the crowd had been quite enthusiastic when the girls of class 1-A had shown up in matching cheerleading uniforms after the lunch break. Some had chosen to stay and frolic with the rest of the extras in the events no one gave a rat's ass about, while others had taken the extra time to prep for the upcoming matches.

Katsumi herself had immediately retreated to their class's reserved seating, knowing that there would be several other matches taking place before her own. Uraraka had ended up tagging along to watch the treasure hunt from a better vantage point.

"Uraraka-chan!" The pink one called, sliding over to the girl's side. "Nice work, girl! Third place, not too bad!"

Katsumi's eye twitched at the reminder of her team's less-than-stellar placing in the previous event. But Uraraka took the 'compliment' with a grace that Deku would have been proud of…

"Thanks, Mina-chan!" the brunette said, frowning softly a moment later. "I'm sorry, but I didn't see where you ended up…"

Ashido waved away Uraraka's worries, propping her legs up lazily on the railing. "Don't sweat it, girl! I ended up teaming with Ojiro and that girl from the support department. She's actually got some really useful stuff with her!" she added thoughtfully. "We were doing alright in the beginning, but we got caught off guard when Todoroki started tossing around _glaciers _and stuff!" She turned her attention to Katsumi with wide, amber eyes, "What the heck was going _on _up there, anyway, Katsumiin!? We _totally_ lost track of the frontrunners when Izu-kun started doing his thing with that crazy quirk of his!"

"I admit that I'm a bit curious about that myself," Uraraka said, turning to face her as well. Once you left our horse, we couldn't exactly see what was going on…"

"Perhaps _I _can shed some light on the events that occurred in our battle with our prestigious class representative!"

Katsumi sighed heavily, knowing only one person that so consistently sounded like they had a stick perpetually shoved up their ass…

"Iida-kun! Congrats on second place!" Uraraka called happily, waving towards where the studious boy, along with the rest of his team barring Todoroki made their way into the reserved seating.

"Many thanks, Uraraka-kun!" he called, seating himself in the second row, directly behind her and Uraraka's seats. He chopped a muscular forearm several times through the air, just barely missing the back of Katsumi's head.

Only a restraining palm from the brunette beside her was preventing her from exploding the four-eyes bastard.

"—We had quite an effective strategy planned out from the beginning, if I do say so myself! Not to mention a team backed by the destructive power of Todoroki and Kaminari's elemental abilities! But Midoriya-kun has once again proven why he was selected to be our esteemed class representative!"

"C'mooon!" Mina whined, turning on the bespectacled boy. "That doesn't tell us _anything_! We _all _saw Todoroki's giant path of ice randomly explode at the end!" She threw her hands skyward as if miming an exposion. _Something_ interesting must have happened!"

"It was Midoriya-san," Yaoyorozu commented, taking her seat at a more sedated pace. "We'd thought we had him cornered, but he just punched through the ice bridge we were all standing on!" She pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger thoughtfully. "I probably couldn't tell you as much as Bakugo-san, but the amount of power he's shown at times is quite terrifying. I admit that I find myself at a loss to how I'd fight him head-on if we were to be matched up, though I suppose that's getting ahead of myself.

The black-haired beauty smiled over at one of Katsumi's own former-teammates. Elbows was probably the girl's first opponent, but that hardly concerned Katsumi. If Boobzilla, by some miracle, made her way through Icy-hot, then she'd still have to fight Deku before she even had a _chance_ to battle Katsumi.

"Seriously?" Pinky deadpanned, slumping back into her seat with a puff of air. "I knew Izuku was amazing, but that's _crazy… _Half of us almost got smushed from falling ice!"

Katsumi scoffed, cutting through the conversation like a knife. "If you can't handle _that _small a threat, then you shouldn't be here."

Mina pouted at that, eyebrows pinching together over striking amber eyes.

"So _mean, _Katsumi-chan!" Uraraka moaned, puffing up her cheeks with a frown.

"Not that I'd put it the same way, _kero_, but I understand what she's saying…" Tsuyu said, taking her seat as well. "Being realistic, the zero-pointers in the obstacle race could have done a lot more damage than the falling ice in the first place!"

By this point, nearly all of their class had trickled into their assigned seating area, and now that Katsumi took another look at the field, she saw that the extras had finally cleared out for the _real _competitors. Cementoss appeared to be constructing a massive replica of a traditional martial arts platform in the very center of the arena. A project that might have normally taken several days to complete, would be finished in a matter of minutes.

Thank fuck that that was the case too, or Katsumi might have gone mad with the wait...

The matches would be starting soon, so where the hell was—

"I'm not late, am I?" A familiar voice whispered in her ear. She didn't jump in the slightest, of course. _Not at all._

"Took you long enough, Nerd," she murmured, not bothering to glance in Deku's direction as he dropped down from above into the seat to her right. "Only _you_ would miss your own match. Get caught up stalking all the B-list heroes in the VIP section?"

"_Stalking? _Aww, c'mon! I'm not _that_ bad, Kacchan! Give me a little credit."

Katsumi rolled her eyes, grabbing at the spiral notebook that he'd tried to tuck away while she wasn't looking. She missed, leaving her embarrassingly sprawled across his lap. But the action seemed to surprise the nerd enough to let his guard down. "Oh? Then what's _this, huh?!" _she cried proudly.

The notebook was the same brand that Deku'd favored since they were kids, college ruled and double length. Katsumi's eyes lidded with humor at the dorky title of this particular volume, _Hero Analysis for the Future, The UA Arc._

"Pfft! What is this, _Dragonball_? Getting a bit ahead of yourself _Deku?! _Who made _you _the main character?"

Izuku's normally vibrant eyes seemed to dim at her statement, but she couldn't see why such a comment would affect him so much. It wasn't as if she hadn't been _far_ more flagrant in his presence. But he seemed to have a lot on his mind, so Katsumi put it out of hers. For now at least…

"Midoriya-kun! You were sorely missed, though I urge you to be more punctual in the future, you are the class representative and must set an example for th—"

"Alright, Four-eyes, quit yer' fuckin yappin, already!" Katsumi cut in, physically feeling her blood pressure rise as the boy went on and on.

"How _vulgar!_" Iida stated, reeling back with offense. How engines still expected _anyone, _let alone Katsumi, to adhere to his own personal level of decorum was beyond her understanding.

"Midoriya! Way to bring it home for 1-A my man!" Kirishima called from where he sat several rows behind them. He was flanked on the right by Pikachu and Lobes, with Tentacles, Birdbrain and Invisalign's floating cheer uniform to his left.

"Thanks, Kirishima! Sorry for any trouble _this one_ probably caused you in the last event."

A _cold_ palm settled on her shoulder, and by this point the chill was welcoming rather than startling. A sensation she'd already begun to associate with Deku's touch. She might have been embarrassed as he pulled her closer, if he wasn't _apologizing_ to their classmate like she was a _burden_ or some shit! _They _should be the ones grateful to be on _her_ team!

"The fuck is that supposed to mean, Deku!?"

"No problem, man!" Kirishima said, completely ignoring her and tossing a grin and a thumbs up their way. "We kicked some ass! Don't think I'll take it easy on you, team leader!"

"I'll kill you." Katsumi deadpanned, inwardly grinning as the redhead's eye twitched in response.

"Yeah, yeah, Kacchan, I'm sure you'll get your fill of murder by the end of the tournament…" Izuku said, retracting his hand, but not before brushing his hand through her hair, the cold touch of quicksteel on her neck sending chills down her spine. But he seamlessly continued as if he _wasn't_ turning her into a puddle in the middle of all their classmates.

"Speaking of our opponents," he said, pilfering back the notebook that she'd forgotten in her hands and turning it to the last page he'd written on. "I've barely had a chance to record all the new quirks I've seen today with the first and second events occurring so close together…" He glanced down their row, "Did any of you fight with—" He checked the notebook, "Tokage… Setsuna, during the Cavalry Battle?"

"How the fuck am _I _supposed to know who that is, nerd? I barely know _these_ idiots' names, let alone some B-lister!"

He rolled his eyes, ignoring her snark for what it was. "I cross-referenced her name with the top scores that came with our UA acceptance letters and she wasn't listed in the top ten, so either her score was on the lower end, or—" His eyes flicked over to where Ponytail was chatting with Lobes.

"In on recommendation…" Katsumi murmured, completing his train of thought.

"That's what I was thinking… I should have asked Todoroki earlier when I had the chance, but maybe… Hey, Momo!"

"Ah, Midoriya-san?"

"Did you recognize anyone competing today from your recommendation exam? Or maybe Todoroki mentioned something?" Izuku tapped his pencil thoughtfully against the page with the girl's name written.

Yaoyorozu touched a knuckle to her lips as she pondered the question, nodding to herself a moment later. "Yes, in fact there was, now that you mention it… A green-haired girl and a boy with a particularly unnerving smile, his teeth were quite blocky if I remember correctly! Does that help?" she added, frowning slightly.

Izuku was already scribbling the information he could gather on the lined pages. "That's plenty, thanks! I ran into the latter of the two—he's got the ability to either dissolve a surface into something resembling quicksand," Izuku commented idly. "But Setsuna… I suppose she's still a mystery…"

"Eh… not quite." Katsumi grumbled, "I _may_ remember wrecking the team with that girl on it… how they managed to actually end up in fourth is a fuckin' miracle if you ask me…"

Izuku turned to her expectantly, pencil poised to record anything she could add. It was a sight she'd grown used to in their many years together, but it never failed to bring a warm feeling to her gut. Not that she'd ever admit that out loud…

"All I saw her do was pop off her hand and send it through the air, but ponytail and icy-hot's quirks are no joke, if this Setsuna chick is on the same level, then there's got to be more to it than that…" Katsumi kicked her feet up on the railing, feigning indifference.

"Interesting…" Izuku murmured, filling the page in the span of a few minutes.

"Wow, I forgot how intense they could get…" Mina whispered to Ochako who nodded back in response.

"_Totally!_ But I'm glad it's Izuku-kun that has the first match of the tournament, I'd be so nervous!" the brunette chirped back, visibly shaken at the thought.

Katsumi herself couldn't _wait _for her turn to get into the arena. But for the time being, she'd settle for living vicariously through the nerd. Lucky bastard got picked for the first round.

"**Hellooo all you party people!" ** a familiar voice thundered through the stadium, and unlike during the UA entrance exam, the thousands of live spectators roared right back.

"**Are you ready to see these sixteen finalists duke it out for the title of Undisputed Strongest first year!?" **Present Mic paused like the commentator pro he was, the crowd going apeshit for the the most anticipated final event. "**For our first match, you're in luck, listeners! It's the man of miracles himself, he's swept the first two events with prodigious ease! It's class 1-A's Midoriya… IZUKU!"**

Now _that's _what she was talkin' about! Katsumi swatted repeatedly at Izuku's shoulder, "Get down there, nerd, go show em what an S-tier hero _really _looks like!"

Izuku grinned crookedly over at her, handing off his notebook, and getting to his feet. "Wish me luck?"

"Hah! Luck's for weaklings, Deku!" Katsumi suddenly lunged forward, shoving him bodily over the railing.

The yelp the nerd let out as he toppled over the edge brought a grin to her lips, but Ochako and Mina, not to mention the rest of her class in the rows behind them, all flipped out for some reason

"Izuku-kun!"

"Midorin!"

"Ah, calm your tits, Pinky, he's fine…"

The sections of the crow sitting closest to 1-A gasped audibly as Izuku fell the first few meters, but quickly changed their tune as his quicksteel caught up, slowing his descent until he leveled out, carving his way fluidly through the air to the arena below. The camera drones had of course followed him the entire way down, broadcasting the memorable entrance for the world to see.

The fans were obviously losing their minds…

"He's _insane!"_

"So cool! How does he do it!?"

"Did you see him take on Endeavor's kid!? He punched through a friggin' _glacier!"_

"_Izuku-kun! We love you!"_

…

Oh _god_ the nerd had _fangirls_ already… But Katsumi couldn't help but grin at the well-deserved praise. It was about fuckin time that Izuku got it through his head that they were the best, it was time to prove it to the world!

"**Cool it, Hotshot! The listeners can only take so much!" **Mic cried, playing to the crowd. "**And his opponent, she got in on recommendation, folks! It's class 1-B's own Setsuna… Tokage!"**

The girl took to the stage in a much more sedate manner than her competitor. She entered, stretching her arms over her head with an air of nonchalance that impressed even Katsumi. It seemed that she wasn't the _only_ one looking forward to proving her worth on a national stage. Tough luck that she wouldn't be making it past the first round…

"Oh… I'm so _nervous!" _Ochako whispered to her left, once again leaning over the railing. As if those extra few inches would afford her a better view of the match.

"HAHAH you _should _be!" a voice called, seemingly coming from the divider to the far right of the section dedicated to their class. The high tones instantly grated on Katsumi's nerves, and before she'd even turned in the speaker's direction, she knew the bastard was gonna' piss her off. Call it intuition…

"They're all going crazy for class 1-A just because you were better at getting _attacked_, but so far it just looks like you're all getting carried by one above average student! And you call yourselves _heroes!?" _

Katsumi's eyes snapped to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy that was peeking over the barrier to the next section like some sorta creep. "_Hah?! _The fuck did you just say, asshole? Am I supposed to _know _you?"

She didn't recognize the prick on first glance, but that didn't mean much. Katsumi didn't bother to remember _most _of these pathetic excuses for heroes anyway. Luckily, some of her class _did_ seem to know the boy…

"Wasn't he the guy that stole Todoroki's quirk in the cavalry battle? He was quite brutal with his retaliation if I remember…" Ponytail whispered from the row behind her.

Iida was quick to confirm. "Indeed! Young man, it is _quite_ rude of you to taunt your fellow competitors! Have you no shame?!" His forearm chopped sharply through the air to add emphasis to his point.

"Bahahah! You were the dumbass they had to melt out of that ice block?!" Katsumi cackled madly. "As much as it pains me to agree with engines here, D-listers that didn't even _make_ it to the knockout rounds shouldn't talk!" Katsumi drawled, immediately dismissing the boy as a threat.

The voyeur seemed to take a deep breath for some kind of response, before a slightly oversized hand wacked him over the head from behind. He slid comically out of sight, only for a smiling orange-haired girl with sparkling turquoise eyes to replace him.

"Sorry about him, he gets like that when he's off his leash," she said, waving apologetically. "Good luck to your classmate! Setsuna's pretty tough!"

"Like we need fucking luc—"

"Thanks! You too!" Round face chirped, boldly cutting Katsumi off.

Damn it. She was learning…

"**And Begin!"**

Katsumi's gaze snapped back to the arena below, glancing toward the big screen to double check that she hadn't missed any of the action.

She hadn't. Deku was simply observing his opponent with a calculating gaze, his quirk twitching around at shoulder height. It came as no surprise to see him starting out with a more passive approach. Katsumi was honestly just as excited for _this _match as she was for her own. When completing team exercises in class, Izuku often took utilized his mobility strategically, only taking a head on fight when it served some purpose for the objective.

But now… he had no choice.

Katsumi recognized the exact moment Deku was done planning. A slight tensing of his right shoulder was the only tell, only visible because she'd happened to be looking at a display with an ideal angle.

His jabbed out a loosely clenched fist, plunging it into his quirk and molding a staff in the blink of an eye. The weapon whistled through the air in a devasting horizontal strike, lengthening and extending its range just enough to slam into his opponent at the apex of the arc.

Even Setsuna herself seemed to be startled at the sudden attack, grin falling away and eyes shooting wide. The glinting quicksteel rod impacted the narrowest point of the girl's waist, and for a moment, the spectators went silent at the perceived result.

"No way!" Round Face gasped to her left.

"D…did he just _kill_ her?!"

Izuku's staff seemed to cut through the point of impact, bisecting the green-haired girl completely in half… Even Katsumi's eyes had been fooled for a moment, but a closer inspection revealed the truth.

Setsuna's torso had separated completely from her shapely hips and legs. The blue material of her UA jacket flapped in the wind as the upper half floated in place. The 1-B student's snarky grin was back in place.

Katsumi leaned forward, peering with narrowed eyes over steepled fingers. "Well _that's _a bit more troublesome than I'd thought…"

"An opponent that can divide her body at will…" Iida mused in his typical uptight fashion. "For someone like Midoriya, who relies on purely physical attacks for offense, that seems like quite the unfortunate matchup!"

"Ehh? Worried already?! I guess class 1-A isn't so great after all!?"

Great. The B-lister was talking again…

Katsumi relaxed her posture and leaned back into her seat, swiveling a piercing crimson eye towards the blonde annoyance. "Keep watching, _extra_. You're about to learn exactly _why_ encountering _real_ danger makes so much of a difference."

Though, as she watched Setsuna _disassemble _herself before the world, Katsumi was only more certain that the fans would get their money's worth.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Setsuna's quirk was amazing!

Izuku slipped, ducked, and leaped away as he was assaulted with by the disembodied pieces of his opponent's left arm.

Complete separation of body parts with no obvious drawbacks? _Plus _she had remote control of the detatched parts _beyond_ what any normal body could accomplish! Setsuna's torso, sans arm, still floated idly above her legs even as more and more parts continued to peel off her body. There _had _to be some kind of limit to the girl's ability to split, or at least her ability to manipulate the pieces…

What kind of range did she have… Was there a 'primary' piece that controlled the rest? A time limit?

Izuku skipped backwards with feather-light footwork to put some distance between them, all the while keeping a sharp eye on the white paint denoting the arena's boundaries. Sure enough, a stream of body parts followed after him, moving deceptively quickly through the air. Curiously enough, the size of each part didn't seem too affect how quickly they could move…

Alright… If that was the case, then it was reasonable to assume that the heavier appendages could pack a greater punch, but exactly how strong _were_ they?

Only one way to find out…

Izuku suddenly skidded to a halt, coating his forearm with quicksteel just to be safe and blocked the _literal _flying elbow with a crossguard. It was a testament to Setsuna's strength that Izuku could _feel _the impact of the first strike as it slammed into his unflinching guard. In fact, it felt significantly stronger than any blow without the weight of a body to back it up had _any_ right to be.

But it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Izuku could see how wonderfully useful Tokage's quirk would be with a more dynamic objective to achieve, but unfortunately for her, there was no other mission in the ring to achieve but victory… Knowing that Setsuna truly did not have the destructive power to decisively KO him, if he could avoid being bombarded by body parts from multiple angles, all he had to worry about was locking the slippery 1-B student down…

"**Woah! It seems like Setsuna's got her opponent on the ropes! The buggy-bodied dynamo from class 1-B seems to have proven her mettle, putting the powerhouse Midoriya on the defensive! Eraserhead, how will he get himself out of **_**this**_ **one!?"**

"**It's been a while since I've taught a first year as talented as Midoriya in hand to hand combat, and that quirk of his only bolsters his power even further… However, for someone like Tokage, whose quirk renders physical attacks all but useless, all of that means nothing—"**

"**You heard it here first, folks! Midoriya is **_**screwed!"**_

"—**You didn't let me finish, Mic, this match is far from over… As we've clearly seen up to this point, Midoriya's quicksteel is hardly that one-dimensional… Even **_**I**_ **haven't seen everything that kid is capable of…"**

So Aizawa _could_ compliment his students—apparently just not to their faces…

Izuku couldn't help but grin even as Setsuna attempted to blindside him with what looked like a piece of her left shoulder, not that he could really tell at this point. His senses served him well letting him duck the attack by a hair, leaping to the side in the next moment, and seemingly falling for the trap his opponent had set.

A barrage of limbs descended on his position, all led by the girl's two grasping hands in what he assumed was an attempt to restrain him.

But he had a gambit of his own…

Izuku had picked out a few habits of the admittedly prodigious 1-B student over the course of their short match. He knew better than to simply assume her quirk was so strong from the get go, it most likely took years and years of practice to be able to control so many parts simultaneously. He'd yet to see the upper limit of how many times she could split, but for whatever reason, Setsuna seemed to leave her hands completely assembled. He imagined the dexterity offered by all digits working in conjunction was far more valuable than any force she could generate with the fingers on their own.

Most importantly, it meant that they would probably not split apart unless she consciously willed it to happen. Considering her head and torso were still floating safely at the other end of the arena, she _shouldn't _be able to recognize Izuku's intentions until it was too late.

He spun around, quicksteel suddenly bloating into a massive bubble and encapsulating the barrage of Setsuna pieces in an instant. Settling his palm on the spherical surface was enough to solidify the structure, entrapping the various limbs for good. The ringing clangs of the frantic body parts fruitlessly trying to make their escape echoed across the arena, but was dwarfed by the raucous cheering of the crowd at his counterattack.

But he'd long since tuned all that unnecessary information out. His heartbeat had accelerated to a comfortably rapid pace, endorphins pumping from the admittedly short game of cat and mouse.

With a thought, Izuku shrunk the size of the spherical prison down to a more manageable size, venting the excess air out of miniscule openings so as to not let his 'hostages' escape.

A subtle grin came upon his lips. The venue was about as far from a freeway underpass as you could get, and his opponent was far more attractive than the sludge monster had been—not that that was very difficult to accomplish—but to think he'd ended up employing such a similar strategy to back then…

But _this_ opponent was far from finished. Izuku's jade-green eyes flashed as he leveled a stare across the arena to a visibly flustered Setsuna. She hovered several meters above the arena floor, her upper torso divided into several pieces—flashing a reasonably toned midriff he might add—while her head remained whole. Other than that, though, it seemed both arms from the shoulder down were missing, as well as the girl's legs from mid thigh…

The toothy grin remained, but her body language, as much as Izuku could tell while it was in that state, _screamed _indecision.

"So… where do we go from here, Setsuna-san?" Izuku called over the distance. He strafed the girl's position slowly, always keeping a hand on his quicksteel prison as it floated alongside him. "Will you attack with your torso next? Or maybe a butt cheek?" He flashed a cheeky grin her way.

A bit out of character for sure… but maybe Kacchan had been rubbing off more on him that he'd thought…

"Hah! You wish you could touch this ass, hotshot!" his opponent snarked back. "But I'm hardly incapacitated!" She demonstrated this fact by undulating her unrestrained body parts tauntingly through the air. The action earned a decidedly _male_ cheer from the crowd. "How do you even plan to _win_ when I can just avoid you until you tire out?!" she added, tilting her head entirely upside down while she spoke

It was a bluff.

Izuku's quirk, unlike most emitters, had a single niche weakness that made for particularly poor matchups with specific opponents, but otherwise did not drain his stamina in any overt way. Setsuna's however, was most likely classified as transformative, which often came with the obvious drawback of a limited amount of time it could be used.

Izuku considered it as a reasonable tradeoff for the often-multifaceted nature of that class of quirks, but in this situation, it played heavily into his favor. He _could_ run out the clock, betting on Tokage's limit to come far before his… but he did have another, more immediate option.

It wasn't very hero-like though…

He brought the encapsulated limbs up to chest level, palming the sphere between his mismatched hands in contemplation. "Forfeit, or I'll start breaking fingers…"

"D-dude…" She deadpanned, the involuntary utterance barely audible in the distance between them.

Setsuna suddenly lurched forward with several body parts as if she was going to rush his position, but Izuku had been waiting for something like that.

With a twitch of his fingers, the quicksteel between his palms shifted slightly, applying a generous amount of pressure to where he could feel her fingers within. Not enough to break anything yet, but _definitely_ enough to prove he was capable of doing so.

The warning worked, halting his opponent's rush before it could even begin.

The green-haired girl scowled in frustration, turning to Midnight keeping careful watch on the sidelines. "I give."

oooOo Shoto oOooo

Shoto couldn't quite find it in himself to join the rest of his classmates to watch the first few matches before his own. Not that he had anything against them all, but with his conversation with Midoriya weighing heavily on his mind, he truly needed an introspective moment to calm his swirling thoughts.

The small locker room was distinctly modern when compared to the traditional Japanese architecture that adorned the majority of his Father's estate. The dojo that he'd spent most of his childhood training in may have been a less than stellar experience at times, but humans were creatures of habit after all…

The white stone walls and metallic storage containers were too _clinical _for his tastes.

But it was a minor inconvenience, a small sacrifice in exchange for the massive monitor that dominated the far side of the room. Multiple camera angles from the main stage were projected, giving anyone who didn't wish to watch the action live, an opportunity to observe their competitors.

Todoroki's own first-round opponent, was shorter girl from their sister hero course. A Brunette, whose hair was styled in a way that shadowed her eyes whenever he'd laid eyes on her. She'd barely shown her hand so far in the competition. He'd have to go into his first bout blind, relying on his power to carry him in lieu of proper research on his opponent, but that was hardly anything new.

No, his real intention was obvious. Assuming that Midoriya continued his winning trend, Todoroki would be facing him in the quarterfinals, so any information on how the enigmatic class rep fought would be invaluable.

It was obvious that Setsuna Tokage's quirk was formidable, her skill at putting it to use even more so. But even after being put on the back foot initially, the match had concluded in an expected, albeit anticlimactic, matter. Not that the first match had really given him any earthshattering revelations… Shoto had already _known_ that letting Izuku get his hands on him would seal his loss in an instant.

He couldn't help but wonder exactly how Midoriya had forced Setsuna's surrender. What had he said to her? Some kind of threat? Shoto hadn't exactly expected it from the heroic teen, but after considering Midoriya's actions in the admittedly short time he'd known him, the boy was nothing if not pragmatic.

_At least when Bakugo's life wasn't on the line…_

A glance back to the monitor revealed the next round underway. A fair-skinned girl with orange hair, and an athletic figured quickly traded blows with a boy whose exposed skin looked vaguely similar to when Midoriya wrapped himself in his quirk. From what he could tell, however, the 1-B student lacked all the finesse and versatility that made Midoriya so dangerous, relying only on brute strength. Though frankly, the green-haired boy most likely had him beat on that front as well…

Against his current opponent, though, the boy's metal body proved quite effective.

Enlarged fists slammed relentlessly into the boy's metal body, the girl displaying a sound mix of martial styles. It was no surprise that they leaned more towards elements of boxing rather than techniques that favored kicking or grappling. But the metal boy seemed to tank everything the girl could dish out and then some.

He absorbed every punch, palm strike or chop that was sent his way, tucking himself behind a peekaboo style guard and holding his ground. Shoto had to admit that what the boy lacked in technique he certainly made up for in tenacity.

Both fighters showed their mettle, proving for the world to see that they belonged at a school as prestigious as UA. Shoto made an attempt to analyse their fighting styles, but it was halfhearted at best…

Every narrative he'd considered for this tournament involved his own clash with Midoriya, meaning that whoever won the current bout, would inevitably lose to the powerhouse in the next round…

Another glance to the screen showed the fight coming to a close, the metal-boy from 1-B tackling his classmate to the ground and pinning her with a lock that appeared determinedly nonviolent. Perhaps a hint of mercy between peers? Not that it was exactly exploitable at this point of the competition…

Todoroki rose, exiting the locker room and making his way through the many hallways towards the south entrance of the main stage. While this may have been his first time participating in this particular competition, it wasn't the first time he'd made an appearance in a televised event, being a spawn of the number two hero came with its own set of _perks_ after all…

He patiently waited for his name to be announced over the loudspeakers, clearing his mind of all errant thoughts. His opponent was unknown, but his ice had never let him down before. Frost swirled idily under his right palm, the dull hum of the roaring crowds serving as a backdrop to the scene until finally…

"**You've seen him in action all day, folks! The back to back runner-up to the first two events is here! The man of ice and fire himself, TODOROKI SHOOOTOOOOO!"**

A bit melodramatic for Shoto's tastes, but tacky intros notwithstanding, it was time.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Seriously, Izuku, I _told _you already, I'm fine!" Tokage said, not for the first time. Though that _was _probably his fault for apologizing so much.

Despite the girl's reassurances, the way he'd won certainly hadn't _felt _very sporting. In fact, he expected that some of his own classmates might have a few words for him when he got back to his seat. He could perfectly imagine the way Kirishima might find his 'lack of manliness' _personally_ insulting.

But luckily, the girl's playful personality leant itself well to not holding grudges. She'd forgiven him immediately, and had remained friendly while he'd observed the match that followed.

Both fighters had put on a show the viewers would surely remember, but in the end, Tetsutetsu had proven his iron will, coming out victorious and cementing his place as Izuku's next opponent.

Setsuna, who'd stayed and watched the match to support both of her classmates, had offered to walk back with him back to their class's seating area. He'd accepted, knowing that their assigned sections were right beside each other. Flying back to his seat during someone else's time in the spotlight would be beyond rude, despite the time in may have saved him in the long run… He'd heard Todoroki's introduction over the loud speakers just moments previously, so they'd have to hurry if he didn't want to miss the beginning of his fight…

"—_hellooo,_ earth to Izuku!"

He caught hold of the disembodied hand that'd gone to poke at his forehead.

"Nice reflexes, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised." She shot him a sheepish grin, but the apology wasn't needed. He'd gladly forgive the girl for the chance to inspect her quirk in a non-combative environment.

He turned the appendage every which way, the quicksteel digits of his left hand handling the with a deliberate care. The edge left by the separation of Setsuna's hand at the wrist, was the same fleshy color of her natural skin tone, rounded, unblemished, and without any indication of how the muscles and ligaments were directed to move. Just another oddity surrounding the sometime illogical nature of quirks, he supposed.

"Ah… I guess I deserved that, but can I have my hand back now?"

Izuku blanched, caught up in his inspection. "Sorry! I couldn't help but be curious. Your quirk is really unique, Tokage-san."

"No worries," she said, leading the way up the stairs that led to their section of the stadium. "And you're one to talk! I thought Tetsutetsu's steel was pretty incredible already, but I can't help but feel sorry for him!" She leaned in flirtatiously, vibrant, dark-green hair bouncing with the motion. "You're something else, Izuku-kun!"

Izuku coughed lightly, putting a bit more distance between them, but Setsuna didn't seem to take offense. Perhaps he'd been reading into things a bit? Maybe her forward nature was just a part of her personality…

"So what's up with your hand?" Setsuna asked suddenly, her playful tone turning more curious. "You move the rest of that stuff around like it's nothing, but your left's always metal, and it's so _cold!_" she said, shivering as her own limb reattached to her body.

How to answer that? Well, it wasn't exactly a secret… Anyone who looked into the villain attack with any effort could figure it out with some basic deduction.

"You guys heard about the stuff that went down at the USJ right?" Izuku said, taking a left turn that Setsuna followed unconsciously.

"Of course," she said matter of factly. "It's all anyone at school was talking about for weeks! At least until the tournament got closer," she added belatedly. Setsuna quirked her lips to the side, "People were _amazed_ that a class of first years could escape a real villain attack unscathed…"

"_Nearly _unscathed," Izuku clarified, separating the quicksteel from his left wrist, revealing the scarred stump underneath. He leveled a blank look at the girl who'd paused in shock, blinking slowly at the information.

"Dude…"

Apparently 1-B hadn't been entirely aware of the situation, not that it really changed anything, It was hardly a weakness at this point, at least not against any of his future opponents from the other classes.

"Risks of the hero lifestyle, right?" Izuku joked, reattaching the prosthetic and wiggling his fingers playfully. Realizing that he'd arrived at the turnoff for his class's seats, he left the still-speechless girl with a parting shot. "Don't sweat the loss, Setsuna-san! At the end of the Tournament the sponsors will remember that you lost to the future champion."

He threw a wave over his shoulder before entering his class's section, making his way down the bleachers to where he'd left Katsumi a half-hour previously. Only for his attention to be drawn away from his girlfriend, and towards the arena where he could see Todoroki and his opponent taking the stage.

"You sure took your time, nerd," Kacchan taunted as Izuku took his seat beside her.

He laughed, kicking his feet up over the ledge of their section. "What? No scathing review of my match? No '_shoulda layed her out in the first four seconds, nerd!" _Izuku did his best to pitch his voice to match her aggressive drawl. From the look she was giving him, it appeared that she _wasn't_ amused.

"Who the fuck was _that_ supposed to be!?" she growled, eyebrow twitching at the snickers from the few classmates sitting close enough to overhear.

"I dunno, Bakugo," Jiro called, twirling one of her jacks innocently. "That sounded pretty familiar…"

"Fuck off, Lobes! No one asked you!"

The bickering appeared to finally trigger Iida's tolerance for misbehavior. He shot out of his seat, chopping his arm with rapid fire swishes. "That is quite enough, don't you think?! One of our esteemed classmates is about to do battle on this most prestigious stage. Do you not think that we should give him our full attention?!"

"Alright, Iida, we get it." Izuku grinned sheepishly. "He's right, guys, lets see what Todoroki's really made of, eh?

"Right!" The class chimed, turning their attention towards the stadium.

oooOo Shoto oOooo

Todoroki coughed lightly into a fist as he came to a stop several meters across from his opponent, tuning out the roaring crowds as best he could. The girl standing opposite him was…

Odd. That was the first descriptor that came to mind, anyway… It wasn't thought in a malicious way, but from her strange appearance to the unnerving way she grinned at him from under her bangs was just… off putting.

Perhaps a cautious approach was his best bet at this point… Not that that changed his strategy much...

He coughed again, a slight tickle in his throat irritating him beyond belief. It'd been ages since he'd last been sick in the slightest, as much as he despised his father's fire, the inhuman resistances to extreme temperature had done wonders for his immune system. Shoto glanced over to where Midnight stood to one side of the marked boundaries, prepared and ready to officiate the match. The anticipation was tangible on the air, until finally…

"**Ready… BEGIN!" **Present Mic cried, signaling the fight to commence.

This was it. A decisive first strike was the obvious choice.

Todoroki inhaled deeply, letting the frost flood his being… only, he couldn't. His lungs were unable to receive any air as his throat constricted seemingly of his own accord. Heterocramatic eyes flew wide at the unexpected asphyixiation, his body lurching as it tried to force even the smallest bit of precious oxygen down his windpipe.

"_What the—_".

At least that's what he _might_ have said if it wasn't for the blockage, but even as that thought crossed his mind, an even more pressing concern made itself known. Namely, the massive _forest _of fungi that began to sprout from the exposed surfaces of his skin.

"**Woah! It looks like 1-B's Komori's got the hookup, yo! Look at those magic mushrooms go!"**

"**They **_**really**_ **gave you a hero license…" **Aizawa sighed at the questionable commentary.

"**Just stay **_**groovy,**_ **Eraserhead!" ** the blonde radio host shot back, audibly throwing him a double thumbs up.

Todoroki _might _have appreciated the witty banter between the two longtime friends a bit more if he hadn't been so preoccupied with his current situation.

How foolished he'd been… Focusing so bullheadedly on a match that was still two rounds away, while he'd still had a formidable, if strange, opponent right in front of him! He really _was _off his game today…

Todoroki idly rubbed the pads of the thumb and forefinger of his right hand together, a nervous tick from when he was younger. But it served its purpose, the soothing frost immediately crackling to life in his palm.

Even as one of the spongy mushrooms, the one swelling up from his forehead to be precise, began to completely obscure his vision, his heartrate also began to slow… As long he had his ice, he couldn't lose… He _wouldn't._

"Aren't my wonderful shrooms just _lovely_?" a nasally voice called. But Todoroki couldn't pinpoint her location as the creeping fungi continued to bloat, blinding him and muffling his senses.

_No matter._

Todoroki retained enough freedom of motion to take a knee, placing a palm against the concrete surface of the arena. Such a large-scale attack was impractical in the previous events, considering the limitations in place, but in a 1v1, there was no one else in the ring to act as collateral damage. His quirk activated, and Todoroki _shivered._

_Ice Age._

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"What's going on!? Is Todoroki-san okay?" Uraraka said

Izuku frowned down at the arena, chin resting upon his clasped hands while some of his classmates echoed the brunette's worry. Personally, he felt it was a bit early to judge the match, but Komori's quirk was nothing if not unique…

Massive, distinctly organic-looking structures were sprouting seemingly everywhere within the boundaries of the arena, _including_ both competitors. However, where Komori jauntily hopped around, admiring her mushrooms without a care in the world, Todoroki had responded with obvious distress, even _before_ the forest of fungus had begun to grow on his body.

"It's gotta be pretty hard to move around with all that stuff growing off him, but still…" Izuku's brows narrowed over glinting verdant eyes.

"But Todoroki should just be able to blast her away, right?!" Kirishima was practically climbing over the row below him to get a better look at the action. "Why's he hesitating so much?"

"We're missing something…" Katsumi grumbled by his side, a thoughtful expression coming over her features.

Izuku dipped his chin in agreement. Todoroki's quirk was powerful, but even more relevant was the boy's judgement and quick reactions. It wasn't like him to let someone get the jump on him like that…

But in the next moment, as if in response to their worries, Todoroki's struggling form stilled, earning a curious expression from Komori as she circled his location.

The crowd seemed to freeze in suspense, and in the next moment the metaphor was given reality as ice and frost erupted in a concentric pattern with Todoroki at the epicenter. Gusts of bonechilling air buffeted the crowd along with the expanding ice, but did nothing to deter their shouts and cheers at the flashy attack.

Izuku's eyes widened with interest at the way the sudden assault spread to cover the entire arena as his class erupted with astonished cries. Todoroki's attacks, at least the large-scale ones he'd been showcasing all day had always been directional, originating from his right side, and traveling in a single vector. But this one was different, an area of effect attack that covered every direction, even those in the boy's blind spot.

It was definitely something he'd keep in mind…

Despite the less than ideal start, the match had been decided in an instant, Komori's mushrooms withering and falling off Todoroki's body the minute she'd been immobilized. Or perhaps the fungi struggled to grow in such frigid conditions? Izuku wasn't exactly sure, but he made note of it regardless, hoping he'd be given the chance to study her quirk when their lives were less hectic.

Izuku chuckled at the thought. As if _that _would ever happen…

Down on ground-level, Midnight idly brushed the frost that clung to the sheer material of her costume, before cracking her whip through the air—"**Todoroki wins by immobilization!"**—prompting Todoroki to melt his opponent out of the ice.

Izuku had never really given much thought to the boy using his fire in these types of scenarios, undoing the destruction caused by his ice, but given the conversation they'd had so recently, it certainly held a new significance, at least in his eyes…

oooOoOoOooo

The cheers and taunts among their classmates were a bit more of a mixed bag for the next match, both competitors being from 1-A. But from an objective standpoint, Izuku just wanted to see how far Momo could push the application of her near-limitless quirk.

That wasn't to say that he wanted Sero to lose… But to a self-proclaimed connoisseur of quirks such as himself, **Creation** was just so _fascinating!_

"Don't hold back, Sero! Show her that us average students can go hard too!"

"Is that supposed to be a complement, Kirishima?" Mina said skeptically, tilting her head back to where the boy sat behind her.

"Rip off her clothes like one of those old fighting games!"

Izuku didn't need to check who'd shouted _that_ encouraging bit of commentary… He ignored the pained cry that followed. He'd lived with his friends long enough to recognize the sound of Mineta being impaled by Jiro's jacks in an instant. No, Izuku was much more interested in watching the match unfold.

"**BEGIN!"**

Sero took immediate action at Present Mic's call, firing off his super-adhesive tape from both elbows. The bone-white ribbons of material rocketed toward Yaoyorozu's position with a surprising velocity, latching tightly around the arm she'd raised in defense.

In an attempt to end the match before his academically inclined opponent could react, Sero twirled in place, swinging the partially restrained Momo in a wide arc.

Izuku winced, the rest of the class gasping in unison as the girl was flung bodily towards the perimeter of the arena. But Izuku could tell that the girl wasn't out of this yet, her expression was calm, brows narrowed into a fierce focus as the cyan glow of her quirk lit up around her restrained forearm.

A hollow cylinder seemed to sprout out of her forearm, expanding the constrictive tape enough so she could slip her wrist free.

"Clever…" Katsumi commented under her breath to his left. "But how will she push that advantage…"

As if in response to Katsumi's commentary, Momo tumbled with the momentum of Sero's toss, regaining her feet with and impressive grace. She spawned several objects in the palms of her hands, flinging them across the distance between her and Sero in the next moment.

"**Woah! The woman of creation, Yaoyorozu Momo, ditches Hanta Sero's trap in an instant! What else does she have up her sleeve, folks?!"**

Izuku's eyes flicked to one of several monitors displaying a closer perspective of the fight, trying to pick out exactly _what _the objects tossed by Momo were… They were oblong in shape, each a bright red color, detailed with an image that Izuku couldn't quite identify at this distance. But if he wasn't mistaken…

_Russian matryoshka dolls?_

But the girl's creations proved to be more than meets the eye in the next moment, audibly popping open and ejecting not scaled down dolls, but thick, billowing clouds of grey smoke. Without a second thought, the ponytailed girl sprinted into the smokescreen even as the glow of her quirk flared up once more, right as Izuku, as well as the rest of the spectators, all lost sight of both combatants.

"**It looks like Yaoyorozu's using a smokescreen to eliminate the ranged advantage of her opponent." **Aizawa drawled into his microphone. "**It looks like that girl's finally learning to multitask…"**

"**Wicked commentary, Eraserhead! But we can't see what's going on! Midnight, what situation down there!?"**

The pro acting as referee on the ground level, stood ready, eyes peeled to pick out any sign of either combatant within the smoke. For a moment, the cheers and shouts of the fans dimmed, everyone waiting on the edge of their seats for some indication of the action.

What seemed like minutes later, but in reality was only a few seconds, a particularly powerful gust of wind swept the smoke away revealing Momo pinning Sero to the arena floor, his arms cuffed tightly behind his back, clearly restrained enough to decide the match.

Midnight's declaring Momo as the winner was merely a formality at that point, only made more evident by the crowd's roar of approval even before the official result had been announced.

"Good shit, girl!" Jiro called through cupped hands from the row behind him.

"Alright! You killed it!" Mina echoed.

"Better luck next time, buddy. That was still a rad fight!" Kaminari added good-naturedly.

Momo straighted up, tearing off the odd-looking pair of goggles that had she'd had fastened around her head. She glanced around to the cheering crowd with wide eyes, as if their praise came as a surprise… Izuku wasn't sure why, she seemed to come into the match with a plan, and executed it near-flawlessly.

The goggles, which, after a bit of thought, Izuku suspected were some kind of thermal imaging device, or something else that allowed her to see while Sero's own vision was obscured. After establishing such a favorable situation, it probably hadn't taken much effort to take down the more mobility focused Sero.

But now that she'd won, Momo had an even more pressing matter to consider. How would her creation, which topped the charts for versatility, stack up against Todoroki's raw combat ability? She was skilled, but Izuku couldn't help but have his doubts…

With that being said, the opening round was barely half way done, and up next was…

"Oi, shitty hair!" Katsumi growled as she stood, palms sparking with anticipation. "Try not to die too quickly, I've been waiting _far_ too long for a fight!"

With that ultimatum delivered, she hopped up onto the ledge of their section, before dropping down several stories to the arena below. The telltale crack of her explosion indicated her softening the landing.

Kaminari snickered, patting the now-sweating redhead at his side companionably. "It was nice knowing you, dude…"

"Aww, _cmon_ guys, how 'bout a little support over here!?" Kirishima cried exaggeratedly. His eyes shot frantically to each of his classmates before turning desperately to Izuku. "Midoriya! You gotta do me a solid, you got any advice? Man to man!"

Izuku chuckled lightly at the display, pondering the question for a moment before settling on what he felt was an acceptable response. "I know you're all about the manliness…" he leveled a piercing gaze at his classmate. "_Don't _go easy on her… You'll regret it…"


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Sorry for the long wait, finals had me busy then I was on vacation and I lost track of time. Better late than never I guess…**

**Chapter 18**

CQC

oooOo Izuku oOooo

Kirishima, after a brief moment of consideration, had decided to take a far more practical route to the stadium floor than Kacchan had, a decision Izuku could support wholeheartedly, despite the few extra minutes it might take him. While Kirishima was probably capable of surviving a fall from this height, the damage that would be caused by his landing was far too impractical to even consider.

The boy left through their section's exit, and a for a moment, their class all fell into their own smaller conversations between the closer knit groups. At least until Izuku felt a soft tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, hey, Midoriya!"

He turned, seeing nothing at eye level, but picking out the floating cheer uniform a few inches to the left. He made the connection in a fraction of a second.

"Hey, Tooru, what's up?"

He always found it a bit difficult to keep 'eye contact' with his invisible classmate, often finding his gaze subconciously drawn to the clothes or accessories she often wore. Normally, it was an involuntary action, having no connection to any sort of attraction, but there was something oddly titillating about the contours of her body being hugged by the more revealing orange uniform. Speaking of those uniforms…

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, but what's up with the cheer uniforms?" He turned to Uraraka, remembering that she had been wearing an identical uniform. "Not that they don't suit you guys or anything, but… y'know…"

"Ah…heheh…" the brunette trailed off uncertainly, a hesitant grin pulling at her lips.

A glance at the rest of his classmates revealed most of the girls glaring daggers at two particular individuals, though Tooru's body language held none of the aggression of the rest of her female classmates. With the way Kaminari and Mineta shrunk away from the stares, Izuku felt he could hazard a fairly accurate guess at what had gone down.

"So…I guess you two are into that sorta thing, huh? Were uh… _all_ of you wearing them?" he hedged.

Uraraka's grin turned downright _devious_, and Izuku was already regretting voicing the question.

"Why's that _Izuku-kun?_" She asked, _far_ too innocently. "Were you perhaps wanting to see it on someone in particular?"

"What a shame you missed it, Midorin!" Mina sang, taking an unprecedented amount of pleasure in his flushed face. "Who knew Katsumi-chan was such a cutie underneath all those scary glares!"

Well… _he'd _known that for a while now… Izuku squirmed, torn between a slight embarrassment, and genuine regret that he'd missed Kacchan dressed as a cheerleader.

"Aww, I can't take it anymore, you guys! He looks so _sad!_" Jiro said, before they all broke out into giggles.

"We're just joking," Uraraka managed through her giggles. "Katsumi-chan wouldn't go near this thing with a ten-foot pole!" She added, pinching and stretching the pleated skirt out slightly. "Though Yaomomo _did _make one in her size… it's still in my locker if you want it for later—"

"Alright! I get it!" Izuku laughed, his face heating up more than it had in quite a while. His quirk wobbled in place overhead; his control shaken with the spike of emotion. "But that's not up to me!"

"Ever the gentleman," Tooru sighed dramatically, her uniform shifting as she turned back to the arena below. "But we've gotten off track…how do you _really_ think this match'll go? We won't tell Katsumi-chan, _promise."_

She tacked that last bit on at the end, and Izuku got the impression that her eyes were darting around nervously, as if Kacchan could hear them from several stories down.

Izuku of course felt the initial urge to proclaim his utmost faith in Kacchan's abilities, but for proper analysis, one had to tack a step back, observing with an unbiased perspective.

"Kirishima's abilities are actually _way _stronger than they appear at first glance," he said, thinking out loud.

The red-headed teen in question appeared at the north entrance to the arena, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd with a jaunty wave, before he confidently made his way onto the stage to stand opposite Katsumi. Izuku chuckled as Katsumi bared her teeth, palms crackling wildly, the expression mirrored across nearly every screen in the arena.

"Earth to Midoriya! Don't leave us hanging!" Mina's cheery voice cut through his musings. His classmates in the row behind him seemed to be waiting for his answer as well…

"Sorry, sorry," he said, recollecting his thoughts. "Kirishima's quirk's simplicity is also its greatest strength. It lets him harden his body at will, and while I'm sure he could choose to only harden his skin, I've seen the guy jump off of multi-story buildings and walk away unscathed, meaning there's more going on than you'd think at first glance… Anyone following me here?"

Izuku cracked a smile as Iida actually raised his hand sharply before answering. "His entire body must be hardening, otherwise his internal organs would still be affected by such a fall!"

"Right in one," Izuku said, pointing excitedly at the boy. "And we're not in class, Iida, you don't have to raise your hand…"

"Ah… yes, I see what you mean!" His taller classmate said, frowning and nodding _way_ to seriously for the situation.

Izuku simply smiled, shaking his head disbelievingly. While his friends earnest nature could be a bit much at times, a part of him hoped he never lost that serious, if naïve outlook on life. He turned back to Tooru's floating uniform. "As they say, it's not falling that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom. Kirishima's entire frame, down to his heart, lungs and even _brain_ must harden to that same strength! Otherwise, the stunts he pulls would leave him with a concussion at best… How his organs retain their normal function is anyone's guess, but it's not like such a thing is all that uncommon. The girl I fought earlier—Setsuna—her abilities pose a similar question… One that I'm no closer to answering than any of you are." He returned his gaze to his attentive classmates. "Aren't quirks downright _fascinating!?"_

"You're a freak of nature when it comes to that stuff, Midoriya…" Jiro commented in her apathetic drawl. "But what does that mean for the match… Doesn't that mean Bakugo could actually _lose _this one?"

Izuku grinned, imagining Kacchan's reaction if she'd been around to hear the girl say _that._ "It's true that as far as quirks go, it _is _a particularly poor matchup for her. But if you think that all she's got going for her is her quirk, then you're sorely mistaken…" He turned back to the arena, frowning thoughtfully. "Besides, it's not like Kirishima hardens his entire body while fighting normally, I don't think he'd be able to move if he did…."

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

Katsumi's heart pounded in her chest as the heady sensation of adrenaline pumped through her system, sharpening her already finely-tuned senses.

A jagged, rock-hard fist whizzed past her face, a minute tilt of her neck letting her avoid the blow completely. the wind from the swing ruffled her hair but otherwise left her completely unharmed.

The crowd roared at the close call, but such an inconsequential distraction was far from her mind at the moment.

Another punch followed, a right straight, backed by the formidable weight of Kirishima's hardening. She stepped into his guard, taking full advantage of his fairly straightforward combat style, and delivered three lightening-fast strikes in retaliation. Twice with her elbow to his exposed ribs and an explosive palm to the solar plexus, before dancing out of the way again.

The redhead barely flinched from the attack, but Katsumi hadn't expected him to. She was just testing the waters, probing to see if there were any obvious chinks in the boy's armour.

He was sturdy, to say the least, and approached the fight with remarkably similar tactics to the B-lister that had fought a few matches previously. But after sparring with someone as absurdly quick as Deku for her whole life, Shitty Hair seemed positively _sluggish _in comparison.

Katsumi stepped swiftly to the left as the boy came barreling after her, dodging his attempt to grapple and swinging an explosion-boosted knee directly into his lowered head. The traditional muy tai maneuver would have shattered the nose of a normal human, but all she'd earned from her opponent was a light grunt and a bruised knee. Though the noise was probably more out of shock than any sort of pain.

Kirishima dragged a fist across his face, before shooting her a toothy smirk. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Bakugo-chan! That one barely tickled!"

Katsumi's eyes narrowed at the brash attitude of her classmate. Shitty hair _really_ had an annoying quirk when it came to direct combat, but to think that he'd grown so cocky just from the short opening skirmish of their fight. Oh well… he'd pay for his arrogance in due time…

Katsumi continued her elusive hit and run strategy, parrying and counterattacking whenever the opportunity presented itself. The redhead was stubborn as hell, but constantly hardening his body like that _had _to be taking its toll on the boy's stamina, and despite the physical adaptations of his body to handle the added mass of his quirk, swinging around that much added weight would leave him winded eventually. She just had to wait for the moment his exhaustion exerted itself.

_There!_

Kirishima's attack came with a bit of a delay, a wild haymaker that might have taken her head off had she not once again ducked into his range at the last second. Katsumi leaped into the swing, boosting her velocity with an explosion from the bottoms of her feet, before latching her arms around the pit of his leading arm and neck, ignoring the way his sharpened skin dug painfully into her collarbone.

In a single fluid movement, Katsumi swung the boy's offbalance frame with a classic hip toss, using his superior mass against him. He _slammed_ into the concrete surface of the arena, spidery cracks branching away from the point of impact.

Katsumi grinned inwardly as the boy visibly winced at the collision. It was just as she'd suspected, without the giving the redhead time to prepare himself, the sturdy cement surface was enough to damage even _his _hardened frame.

But Katsumi wasn't finished.

Despite the shock of being thrown so bodily, Kirishima had retained enough of his senses to break free of her steely hold. He realized the futility of the attempt reasonably quickly, instead regaining his feet and hefting her in his arms, clearly preparing to slam her to the floor to break her hold.

In the back of her mind, she acknowledged Kirishima's willingness to go all out against her. She'd half expected the moron to spout some nonsense of about manliness as some shitty excuse not to hurt a _girl._

The maneuver he was attempting was indeed his best bet at freeing her grip, but unfortunately for him, it was _exactly_ what she was waiting for.

At this point Katsumi was relying entirely on muscle memory, abusing the upward momentum of the redhead's motion to twirl acrobatically around his frame, latching her legs around his neck in a classic triangle choke. Her palms sparked as a preface to the audio-heavy explosion she detonated in the next moment.

The crack of her explosion cut through the roars of the crowd, and more importantly, sent her opponent's head spinning from the damage to his eardrums. Katsumi didn't relent in her assault. Taking full advantage of Kirishima's disorientated state, she sealed his fate.

A sharp twist of his wrist pulled him off balance, his left arm fully extended and completely under her control. Katsumi twisted with her hips, the reversal of her right and left legs planting him flat on his back. All that was left now was to _pull._

The sheer sound of splintering stone filled the air.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"Well, at least he put up a good fight…" Izuku sighed, getting to his feet and making his way towards the nearby steps.

_"_What do you _mean, _Midorin_?!"_ Mina said, pulling anxiously at the roots of her bubblegum pink hair. "The fight's still _going!_"

"Not for long," he called over his shoulder, his point punctuated by a pained cry, easily recognizable as their redheaded classmate, from down in the arena. Izuku was unable to restrain a grin at Kacchan's finely-honed technique finally put on display. He knew the girl herself would certainly be satisfied with that performance, even if she didn't say it in so many words.

Katsumi had weathered Kirishima's stamina beautifully, and even crippled his most critical senses with an extremely precise application of her quirk. And after that… well, Izuku knew _exactly_ how difficult it was to escape that lock of hers. At that point the match was all but finished…

In fact, if he hurried, he might be able to meet her as she made her way off stage!

He quickly navigated the mazelike interior of the stadium, relying on what he remembered from her earlier trek and working his way backwards until he was close enough to follow the low rumble of the crowd.

He arrived at the wide hallway leading to the arena just as Katsumi stepped off the platform, a single fist raised triumphantly her only acknowledgement of the frenzied cheering.

"What, no words of encouragement for Kirishima, Kacchan?" Izuku grinned as she made her way into the hallway where he stood.

She scowled, her nose scrunching up cutely, though Izuku imagined others might focus more on alarmingly aggressive look in her eyes… "Fuck no, It's not my job to worry about his _feelings_! There's nothing a winner should have to say to a defeated opponent…"

Izuku sighed, shaking his head fondly. "Well, you certainly made your mark… I'm sure no one'll forget you taking down a guy nearly twice your size in the first round… Though with your showing in the preliminaries I doubt anyone considered you an underdog at this point…"

Katsumi's eyes flared at the mere _insinuation_ that she would ever be associated with such a title, but following an urge that he'd have trouble explaining in words, Izuku suddenly leaned in, silencing the expected protest with a kiss.

The complaint seemed to die in her throat, morphing into a decidedly _un-_Kacchan-like whimper. It only spurred Izuku to indulge further.

He tugged insistently at her bottom lip with his own, coaxing and encouraging the increasingly fervent responses from the girl in his arms. She gasped sharply, fisting a hand in the material of his jacket before probing teasingly back with her tongue.

It could have been seconds or minutes before they separated, but either way Izuku couldn't find it in him to regret the spontaneous liplock, despite the setting being less than idea…

"What was that all about… nerd…" Katsumi gasped, her face flushed with a healthy pink hue.

Izuku slumped against the wall by her side pulling her a few inches closer with an arm over her shoulder. "I… uh… adrenaline?"

She stuck an elbow into his ribs. "Yeah, that's a great excuse… except _I'm_ the one who was just fighting…"

He tucked her head underneath his chin, wrapping her further in his arms. "Do I really need a reason to want to kiss you?"

"The hell!" She squirmed in his grip, though he could tell it was a token effort. Granted, it was a bit more embarrassing to say out loud than it seemed in his head, but wasn't that the whole point of being together? After a brief moment of consideration, Izuku decided that, _yes,_ that was probably the _best _part, and it would be a waste to not take advantage of it.

After a moment of relishing in the closeness Izuku remembered something he'd noticed earlier but had dismissed in lieu of subjectively more important matters… "Cmon, Kacchan. Let's see if one of these locker rooms has a first aid kit. Some of those cuts look pretty gnarly."

Her struggles that time were significantly more insistent than earlier. "I'm fucking fine, Nerd. Do I look like some sorta weak-ass girl to you?" She tugged her sleeves down to hide the scarlet lines streaking her forearms.

"I know you _could_ go on without worrying, but _I'd_ worry." Izuku sighed fondly, "Besides, I know how you are about going to the nurse's office, they're not so bad that we can't clean and wrap them ourselves…"

"…Fine," she relented, though not without a pout that only made him want to swing her around like a teddy bear. But he kept himself in check, both for fear of agitating her wounds _and_ to avoid inciting the rage such an action would undoubtedly cause.

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

She did her best to remain still as Izuku wrapped her arms with the dexterity she'd come to expect from her friend… boyfriend…. From her Deku. Yeah…that sounded about right…

The cool material of his left hand and the warmth of his right, handled her own as if it would snap at the slightest application of pressure… What a fucking joke… didn't he _know _what kind of damage she could do with these things?

But no… his fingers trailed over her own not as if they could ignite at a moment's notice, but with a tentative, _careful_ approach.

How the _fuck_ did she manage to nab this guy for herself…

"Alright, looks like you're all set!" Izuku called suddenly, his voice cutting through her thoughts.

She hadn't been staring _had she?_ Katsumi shook her head as if the motion would clear her embarrassingly lustful thoughts, but all it served to do was send her hair askew, her bangs falling into her eyes. "Shit…" she cursed, running her fingers through the long strands in an effort to fix the problem.

"Here." Izuku said quietly, holding out a small band he'd procured from _somewhere _in the room while she was freaking out. "It's getting pretty long, huh?" he tacked on when she accepted the tie.

"Yeah, gotta get it cut soon…" She said, biting her lip while trying to navigate the unfamiliar territory of tying her hair out of her face. She'd always kept it cropped pretty short and rarely ever needed something like this before. Katsumi's efforts eventually produced an acceptable imitation of a ponytail, leaving her to glance back in the nerd's direction.

Uh… why was he looking at her like that…

"Oi, Deku!"

"Oh! Sorry! It uh… suits you…" He glanced away, his freckles standing out even more sharply than usual against the increasingly red hue of his face.

Hmph. Maybe she'd hold off on that haircut for a while…

oooOo Izuku oOooo

"So… what do ya' think?"

Izuku's eyes were set firmly on the display hung in the corner of the small locker room, making it quite obvious what he was talking about.

"Round face'll have no problem with that B-lister," Katsumi answered, waving her hand dismissively.

Izuku tilted his head curiously. "Oh? Nice to see you so confident in your friends, Kacchan."

"Pfft, hardly…. Just being realistic… Round face has been sparring with both of us for _weeks! _ if she hasn't learned anything by now, I'll kick her ass myself." She puffed out a gust of air, spinning the leftover roll of medical tape idly between her fingers.

"Nice to know you care!" Izuku laughed, snatching the tape away with a tendril of quicksteel. "You could at least do her the service of _watching_ her match…"

"_Fine…"_

Uraraka and her opponent were shown entering the stadium from opposite ends, the monitor zooming in on both of their profiles after a moment. The brunette had a firm, unyielding expression adorning her face, though Izuku could detect a slight undercurrent of unease in the girl. She was nervous, but that wasn't really a problem, bit of pre-match jitters could be a _good _thing.

Her opponent was an unassuming female student that Izuku recognized from their sister class. Present Mic announced her as Yanagi Reiko, his descriptor of: 'hasn't really stood out so far this tournament' pretty much matched Izuku's opinion to a T. Her long, straight hair was a pale blue color, with lidded eyes and an equally pale complexion. She wore the standard red white and blue UA jacket, though it appeared to be several sizes too big, the tips of her fingers just peeking out of her long sleeves.

By modern standards she was fairly unremarkable, but Izuku knew better than most that someone's appearance rarely reflected everything were capable of. They'd just have to wait and see…

The two competitors stood in a tense standoff as Midnight raised her whip in preparation to start the match.

**"Begin!"**

Neither Uraraka nor her opponent made a move, a fact that had Izuku letting out a sigh of relief.

His classmate had been put in an unfortunate position considering how little they knew of Yanagi-san's quirk. Had the silver-haired girl posessed any longer-ranged abilities, Uraraka might have been royally screwed. But, judging by the girl's inaction despite the start of the match, it appeared that her strengths lied in other areas. What they were was anyone's bet, but Uraraka's win condition hadn't changed…

"There she goes…" Katsumi muttered, eyes glued to the screen despite her earlier uninterest.

Ochako had suddenly charged forward, closing the distance between them, hands twitching at her sides, ready for the moment she could press all five fingers to her opponents body. For a moment, it appeared she would reach her target without any trouble, but as she entered within a few meters of Yanagi, her rush faltered, as if only the top half of her body had halted, her forward momentum throwing her off balance.

**"What's this?! Uraraka's determined assault is foiled by some unseen force! What's going on!?"**

Izuku ignored Mic's color commentary, idly opening his notebook to a blank page, all the while keeping his eyes directed firmly towards the monitor.

oooOo Ochako oOooo

Uraraka knew from the get go that she'd be at a disadvantage in such a combat oriented competition… Spending so much time around such amazing people like Katsumi-chan or Izuku-kun, of _course _she knew that it'd probably take a miracle to go toe to toe with some of the beasts in her class. She could take credit for her respectable finish in the first event, but she'd only be deluding herself in thinking that her third place finish in the second was anything more than riding the coattails of Katsumi-chan's downright prodigious skill.

But that didn't mean she wouldn't be doing her utmost to make the best of the opportunity she'd been given. The final tournament was the most heavily publicized of the three events… And publicity meant a better chance at being scouted… Two more chances notwithstanding, her future career was on the line here…

Which made the fact that she was being strangled with her _own_ jacket in front of millions of people even more _humiliating!_

Uraraka had thought she might get the jump on her opponent when the girl hadn't made any offensive moves from a distance, but as she'd approached, the blue fabric of her unzipped UA uniform had seemingly come to life, peeling away from her back and looping up and over the top of her head.

What the _hell_ was this girl's quirk?!

Ochako vaguely heard Present Mic's over the top commentary, most likely highlighting how comical it must be for a 1-A student to be defeated by their own wardrobe…

She half expected to be blindsided by her opponent at any moment now that she'd been restrained, but was surprised to find that no followup came, though the material of her jacket continued to constrict itself around her neck despite her struggles.

But curiously, perhaps in a stroke of luck, Uraraka happened to catch a glimpse of her opponent through a small gap in the fabric. The girl stood completely still, the single eye that was visible through the part in her hair narrowed in concentration. Her hands were raised just above waist level, her fingers splayed. They were twitching slightly, as if she was a puppeteer manipulating a marionette that only _she _could see.

The view was gone in the blink of an eye, but had included all the information she needed. Yanagi-san's quirk, what Izuku would probably label 'minor telekinesis' or something, obviously took a lot of concentration to control, and appeared to leave the girl unable to move without losing control of her target. All she had to do was interrupt the girl's concentration a bit…

Relying on muscle memory alone for a task she'd performed thousands of times in her lifetime, Uraraka peeled the heel of her right sneaker off with the toe of her left. With a moment of careful aim and a short prayer for a bit of luck, Ochako flicked her foot out to where she'd last seen her opponent, hoping, _praying_ that the girl hadn't moved in the last few seconds.

It was the relaxing of the tension around her neck more than the yelp of surprise that let her know her aim had been true, but there was no time for celebration.

Uraraka stripped the thoroughly stretched jacket off of her head, flinging it to the side where it floated indefinitely until it reached the roaring crowd—a souvenir for a 'lucky' fan—but that was none of her concern.

Yanagi had brought her hands back into position, clearly preparing to use her quirk on one of her remaining articles of clothing, but Uraraka had no desire to be stripped down to her sports bra on national television, despite Yaomomo pulling off the look quite well. She rushed the silver haired girl once more, closing the distance with even more urgency that before.

The tug she felt at the hem of her pants sent a spike of panic through her frame, but by that point she'd already reached the taller girl. Ochako, snatched at her opponents wrist, twisting it like Katsumi-chan had shown her, all while feeling the familiar tingle of her quirk taking hold.

In a single fluid motion, she pivoted on the balls of her feet—the fabric of her sock scraping against the concrete—and flung Yanagi overhead, towards the closest out of bounds marker.

It was with a uncharacteristically spiteful grin that Ochako watched her opponent tumble end over end as she sailed through the air, the vertigo apparently distracting enough to prevent the girl from using her quirk to correct her trajectory. Only when she'd clearly passed the out of bounds marker—and a few extra seconds for good measure—did Uraraka feel safe in steepling her fingers, releasing her quirk and letting the girl crash to the ground with a pitiful whimper.

**"Winner, by ringout, Uraraka Ochako!" **Midnight called with a crack of her whip.

It was only then that the brunette allowed herself a shaky sigh, the realization that she actually _done _it filling her with a sense of both relief, and anticipation for the next round. This was merely the beginning… and considering the way the brackets played out… her greatest supporter up to this point had suddenly become her most fearsome adversary…

oooOo Katsumi oOooo

**"—WOWSA! What a comeback from class 1-A's Uraraka Ochako!**

"Well, it wasn't the most graceful victory, but it was still impressive!" Izuku smiled at the display as it panned away from a closeup on their classmate's face and back to Present Mic's animated commentary in the announcer's booth.

"Tch—" Katsumi scoffed, rolling her eyes at the nerd. "It was sloppy, though I guess we can't expect so much when we had no fuckin clue what that gloomy chick's quirk was." She glanced over at the page Izuku had filled up during the match, unsurprised at the sheer amount of information he packed between the lines.

He nodded, flipping the notebook shut before tossing it into his quirk for storage. "Agreed, though I guess we could _all_ use the practice… New villains are popping up every day after all!" He paused for a moment before getting to his feet. "I don't have to worry about you going easy on her next round, do I?"

The cocked eyebrow and snarky grin that accompanied the question made her want to both deck him and kiss him at the same time. She somehow avoided doing either. "As _if._ Who the fuck do you think I am?!"

He grinned back at her. "Yeah, yeah… "

oooOoOoOooo

Katsumi had somehow made it the full distance back to their seats without exploding her boyfriend, though she'd admit that there had been a couple close calls. She strolled down the stone steps of their section, hands splayed casually behind her neck, Deku following close behind her.

The pink one was the first to notice their presence, much to Katsumi's ire. "Hey! Midorin, Bakugo-chan! What kept you guys?" she called cheerfully. "You guys totally missed Uraraka's fight!" Mina added with a pout, her fists animatedly swishing through the air.

"We had something to take care of in the locker rooms, but we caught most of it on one of the monitors down there," Izuku answered from over her shoulder. "It looked a bit rough there for a second, but she pulled through in the end, huh?"

Katsumi recognized the very moment the pink-hued girl had zeroed in on possibly the _least_ important part of Izuku's answer. But it came as no surprise that the girl would latch on to any bit of gossip like a dog with a bone.

"_Ohhh_?! What would you two need to take care of all alone for so long?" Mina said with narrowed eyes and a sly smile. She moved to sidle up next to Izuku as he took his seat, but Katsumi had anticipated the move, planting herself firmly between the two, settling a smoking palm over the girl's shoulder

"Whatever we _feel_ like doing, Pinky. What's it to ya'?" Katsumi narrowed her eyes at her flirty classmate, _daring _her to make a move on the nerd.

"_Testy, testy_…" Mina sang, her enthusiasm only slightly dimmed by the rebuttal.

"That was quite a showing, Bakugo-san, we never got a chance to congratulate you before Uraraka-san's match started" Yaoyarozu cut in from behind her, and Katsumi latched onto the distraction readily.

"I guess you didn't totally suck in your match either, Ponytail… but did you expect anything less from an elite?" Katsumi drawled, kicking her feet up on the railing in front of her.

"I suppose you've never given us any reason to… It was a bit more, ah, _brutal, _than I expected it to be," Momo answered primly.

Katsumi scowled. "Kirishima knew what he was getting into when he got into the ring with me…"

"Did anyone check if he's alright? Kacchan's usually good about avoiding permanent damage, but there might be some complications considering his quirk…" Izuku chimed in, shooting her a subtle smile. Damn nerd probably caught her using her opponent's actual name…

Lobes answered from several rows back. "Sero went down with Kaminari-kun and Iida on their way to the waiting room, said he was gonna check up on Kirishima with recovery girl." The rocker girl leaned back, her earphone jacks twirling her hair. "Dude's tough, I'm sure he'll be fine. But I gotta' admit, Bakugo, that finish was metal as fuck!"

Katsumi was about to reply with a comment that some may have considered borderline narcissistic, but was never given the chance as Present Mic's voice blared out over the loudspeakers.

**"Alright all you party people! Are you ready for the next match!?" **he waited for the appropriate applause before continuing. **For your first competitor, it's class 1-B's assassin, Shiozaki Ibara!"**

The girl with the vine hair, huh? She seemed strong enough, but shouldn't prove too troublesome if she ended up moving on… Katsumi imagined her quirk would prove to be a particularly bad matchup for the girl, not that it really mattered.

**"And her competitor, he took first place in the previous event, but let's all be honest, we're all wondering how he convinced Midoriya to team up in the first place! It's—"**

Wait a second… with everything that had happened since the second event, she'd almost forgotten whose match was coming up…

**"Shinso Hitoshiiii!"**

"Oi, Deku…"

"Hmm? What is it?" he answered turning to her with those wide, expressive green eyes of his.

"Not that I think it was the _wrong_ choice or anything… but is there a reason you didn't give anyone a heads up about that purple-haired fucker's quirk?" Katsumi sneered down at the arena where she could see the student in question make his way out to the center.

Izuku made a noise of understanding, rubbing his chin idly in the palm of his hand. "I'd considered it," he said, nodding after a moment. "And depending on how this match goes, I'll definitely be mentioning it to Iida or Kaminari. But 1-B has been very clear from the start that they're directly competing with 1-A. Shinso may be acting as a third party in this situation, but I see no reason to give intel to our opponents…" He shrugged, keeping his eyes firmly on the area below where the vine girl seemed to be arguing with Present Mic about her introduction...

"That being said, I can't help but feel a bit guilty about this match. From what little I know about his quirk, there's not much that can be done once you've been caught. I have a bad feeling it won't end well for Shiozaki-san…

**"Begin!"**

oooOo Izuku oOooo

He'd almost wished he was wrong, but his prediction couldn't have been more spot on.

As soon as the match commenced, Shinso bowed politely towards his opponent. The nearest monitor clearly showed his lips moving, though Izuku couldn't quite make out what was being said.

Shiozaki mirrored the action, offering a few words of her own, but before the phrase was completed, she froze, her hands going limp by her sides as the light seemed to leave her eyes.

Was that how _he _had looked when Shinso had ensnared him before the second event? It was eerie to be sure, as if every characteristic besides physical appearance was stripped from the target with naught but a few words.

Izuku could _feel _Kacchan seething by his side, so he placed a gentle palm over her own to calm her. It worked to a degree, but did nothing to wipe the scowl off her face.

Katsumi growled under her breath. "What do you think of my chances to convince engines or sparky to throw their match?" A familiar predatory look entered her eyes… "I'll fuckin' _kill_ him!"

"Easy, Kacchan. Shinso-san's strategy won't work again now that everyone's seen it out in the open…"

"Wait, _wait_! I don't get it, you two!" Pinky called, her head snapping between he and the match below. "What the heck is going _on!?"_

By this point Shiozaki was making her way towards the edge of the arena, Shinso watching her with an apathetic look adorning his face.

The crowd understandably took a few more seconds than he and Kacchan to clue into what was going on, but once they did, the murmurs began, growing slowly into a cacophony the closer Shiozaki got to crossing the line. The girl's vine-like hair hung limply, dashing any hopes her classmates may have had at her quirk coming to her aide.

There was no Deus ex Machina turnaround, no last-minute, game-changing revelation. Just a quiet, uneventful ringout, though clearly not one of her own volition.

**"And Shiozaki is… out of bounds? What the heck is going on?!"**

The crowd's roars echoed Mic's sentiment, caught between cheering on the winner of the round, and trying to figure out exactly how the result had occurred.

Shinso merely stood at the center of it all, his eyes moving from his defeated opponent to the surrounding crowd. His expression was one of slight confusion, as if he'd never expected the applause in the first place.

A poke at Izuku's side brought him out of his observations. "Hey, hey! What the heck was _that_? You guys don't seem surprised at all! Though Katsumi-chan seems like she's ready to murder someone!"

"You wanna test that, Pinky?!"

Izuku laughed lightly resting a hand on Katsumi's shoulder, his fingers playing with the edge of her collarbone. "We kinda knew about Shinso's quirk ahead of time," he said to Mina. "He used it earlier to force me to team up with him in the cavalry battle, though I can't say for sure what exactly is the trigger, but it's clearly audio-based. You've seen for yourself that it's some form of mind control… An incredibly powerful version from the looks of it…"

"W-what… Mind control?! That's totally spooky, dude! Are you ok, Midorin?!"

He nodded, waving off her concern. "There doesn't seem to be any adverse effects, but I was only under for less than ten minutes. Who knows if a longer duration could pose a problem for the target… or possibly Shinso himself," he amended, shrugging.

**"Well, folks! Disregarding that… less than eventful matchup, it's time for the final match of the first round! It's the second clash between students of class 1-A of the day! Give it up for Iida Tenya of the hero course! Versus… Sparky Killing Boy, Kaminari Denki!"**

No time to rest, huh? Izuku snapped his notebook shut, having added a few extra details concerning Shinso's quirk, mostly having to do with the prerequisites behind it's activation. Unfortunately, anything he'd written so far was speculation at best. His quirk by nature was difficult to nail down by observation alone. Hopefully the tournament didn't leave enough of a grudge between them that he couldn't quiz him about the intricacies afterwards.

That being said, Izuku doubted this matchup between his classmates would show anything new concerning their quirks that he hadn't already recorded in his time since starting UA.

That wasn't to say that he knew how the match would go. In fact, concerning the matches between the students he knew personally, this was probably the hardest to judge. As far as overall combat ability, Iida had Kaminari beat in nearly every aspect. But the arena itself may end up being the deciding factor…

Iida was quick, that was an undeniable fact, but his speed took a bit to ramp up, and in such a spacious environment with no where to take cover, Kaminari's powerful area of effect attacks would probably prove devastating…

He could theorize until the sun went down, but the only way to find out for sure was to see for himself.

**"Begin!"**

Bright yellow sparks began to arc around Kaminari's forearms as he prepped what Izuku expected to be the highest voltage, non-lethal blast that he could muster. Sure, it would leave him vulnerable directly afterwards, but what did it matter if it was guaranteed to disable his opponent. As reckless as it was, Izuku couldn't exactly _dis_agree with the strategy.

But then the arena was filled with the rumbling of what _felt_ like a jet engine.

Echoing, low-decible reverbarations followed by an ear-tingling high-pitched keening was all that registered to Izuku's senses.

His eyes snapped to the source as Iida seemed to flicker across the arena floor. Izuku's fine-tuned senses just barely caught the movement due to his experience tracking such speedy opponents, but judging from the confused murmurs of his classmates as well as the surrounding crowd, the same could not be said for everyone.

"Looks like engines has been busy," Katsumi muttered under her breath as the boy in question streaked across the arena, impacting the charging Kaminari in a fraction of a second.

The blast seemed to discharge right before Iida's kick connected, but the jolt of electricity wasn't enough to stop the boy's momentum. Izuku was sure that his classmate would feel it in the morning though…

The match was over in an instant. Iida left standing triumphant in the center of the arena while Kaminari was laid out flat on his back, both unconscious and out of bounds, leaving no room to dispute the results of the match.

**"The winner is Iida Tenya!" **Midnight called redundantly, though the spectators didn't seem to care as they roared in approval, whipped into a frenzy by yet another flashy victory by the normally less entertaining first-year competitors.

**"There you have it, all you party people! That concludes the first round of our tournament! We'll be taking a brief intermission before the second round starts! Grab your snacks and buckle in for a wild ride, you won't wanna miss this one!"**

Izuku whipped out his notebook once more, grinning slightly at how quickly he'd been proven wrong. It appeared that Iida had unlocked another aspect of his quirk, which, while not unheard of with heteromorphic types, wasn't exactly _common_, and from what he knew, wasn't something that Ingenium had ever shown. Though Izuku was sure there were _some _secrets kept within the family when it came to hereditary quirk lines like the Iidas.

"A little bit scared now that we know Iida's got some new wheels, Kacchan?" Izuku said offhandly as he finished the last of his notes, unable to resist a little shot at the girl's competitive spirit.

"Fuck off, Nerd. As if that would make a difference!"

"Yeah, sure, if you say so..."


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: Guess you can thank the voluntary quarantine in my area for this chapter finally being finished. All my classes switching to remote meetings—I'm sure many of you are facing a similar situation—so hopefully the next chapter won't be as long of a wait.**

Chapter 19

oooOo Chizome oOooo

Hosu city was quiet at this time of day. Noon had long-since passed, the lunch rush died down, leaving the streets remarkably unoccupied. At least until the standard work hours ceased and commuters returning home would begin milling about like the mindless sheep they were…

It was an ideal hour, less bodies to get in the way of his work… Chisome did not have the _luxury _of being able to clock out. He couldn't afford to, else the sickness _infesting_ these modern heroes would continue to grow unabated.

Chisome's steps were feather light as he ghosted along the labyrinth of side streets and back alleys that made up the seedier parts of town. He stuck to the shadows, making sure that those that _were_ still on the streets barely caught a glimpse of his movement if they were even lucky enough to see him at all.

He took a left at the next alley, before leaping from wall to wall all the way to the third story roof, his ragged, crimson scarf whipping behind him like a bloody tail in the wind.

Chisome settled in a crouch, the pose reminiscent of a gothic gargoyle, muscles coiled, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. His sharp, crimson irises surveyed the crowd below, settling on his prey in a fraction of a second.

"_Ingenium…"_

The name dripped from Stain's lips even as the turbo hero boosted his way through the streets below, jauntily waving at every odd citizen that recognized him. It was a sickening amount of them that did so… If only they knew how he exploited their trust, just like the rest.

Fame, money, power… The false heroes that littered these streets _all_ were in it for some ulterior motive, and the latest in the Iida family line was no different. No, there was no world-shattering scandal concerning the young hero—not every crime committed in this world was so conspicuous. But that did _not_ make him any less guilty of the greed and gluttony that plagued today's hero society.

The Ingenium hero agency, so _proud_ of its record quantity of sidekicks and squeaky-clean arrest history. No one ever mentioned the _billions _of yen they raked in _yearly_ leeching from the sorry sheep that simply didn't know any better.

No, _expunging_ the sickness that was Ingenium and everything he stood for was a job not many would tackle, but Stain was willing to get his hands dirty.

All for the sake of curing this flawed society.

oooOo Tensei oOooo

Despite the formidable force of sidekicks as his disposal, Iida Tensei would always be the first to volunteer to patrol the streets personally—it was one of the reasons he'd become a hero in the first place after all. Fighting for the average citizen, becoming a protector that his brother could be proud of.

So it was nothing out of the ordinary for him to be patrolling the streets of Hosu, one of the few cities that fell under his agency's jurisdiction. However, despite the normalcy of this particular routine, there was an added edge to Tensei's demeanor.

Oh sure, he would greet the various citizens that still happened to be out and about with his usual air of cheerfulness, but those that met him on the street would mention that he seemed distracted, that his attention seemed to be focused elsewhere.

But who could blame him? With all the particularly gruesome reports of murdered heroes popping up around the city, now was _the _time to be extra vigilant.

He was making his usual circuit, doing his heroic best to keep any nefarious individuals from disrupting the peaceful citizens of Hosu, all the while keeping an eye out for even greater threats, when he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.

A glimpse of red. One so brief that for a moment he thought it was a trick of the light.

It couldn't be so easy, _could it_? Stumbling upon the very individual he'd been searching for purely by chance?

But there was no time to second guess himself, leaping into action was what a hero was meant to do!

Activating his tricep boosters with pinpoint accuracy, Tensei skidded to a stop before vaulting from wall to wall, flipping acrobatically into the alleyway where he'd sensed the disturbance.

The mechanical boots of his super suit clicked audibly against the asphalt as he landed the sound echoing off the walls that surrounded him. Tensei's eyes darted around the darkness, searching for anything out of the ordinary, but, oddly enough, the alley itself appeared to be empty, no sign of whatever had caught his attention earlier. Nothing but sound of his own breath and stench of the several-week-old garbage that caked the dingy walls of the two adjacent buildings.

The strike came out of nowhere.

One moment all was quiet, the next, fiery orange sparks filled his vision following the clang of tempered steel meeting the reinforced plates of his forearm bracers. It was only the unconscious reflexes honed by years of hero experience that spurred the slight raising of his arm, and it was that nearly-imperceptible movement that saved his life.

The katana that would have sliced through the soft material just under his armoured jaw—one of the few necessary vital areas of his hero suit—instead ricocheted off his block, but he was far from out of the water…

Another blade, a shorter dagger this time, sliced through the air as he boosted himself backwards to create some distance between himself and the unknown assailant. Well, unknown wasn't quite accurate as a brief glance towards the man revealed a figure matching the vague description the police had distributed to local hero agencies.

Hero Killer: _Stain_, the plague that had been sweeping hero society for the past few months. Though his earliest kills could have dated as far back as a year or two… The villain's total body count was still unknown.

And even with such disturbing statistics to back up his reputation, Stain's sheer _speed _was staggering to witness in person. Almost enough to match the overwhelming bloodlust that _oozed_ from the man's being.

_"This is group B calling in for routine check-in." _Tensei's built-in headset buzzed to life, but he wasn't given the chance to respond as the demonic figure rushed him once more.

A flicker of movement was all the warning he was given as the man closed the gap in an instant, battered katana flicking out to nick a chink out of Tensei's polished white armour as he dodged to the left.

But once more he found himself outclassed in terms of speed, even boosted by his quirk, Stain was somehow already there, dagger flashing out to meet a hastily erected cross guard.

Was he predicting his movements, or was the monster really just that _fast?_!

Neither option boded well for him in an extended one on one fight, but luckily Ingenium's strength was in his comrades. He didn't _have_ to fight alone!

_"This is squad leader Alpha requesting backu—sssargh"_

Tensei hissed in pain as his call for aide was interrupted almost immediately by a speeding throwing knife. The blade had just barely nicked the crook of his elbow as he'd raised his arm to activate his voice comms. A weakness that had been exposed for a fraction of a second, but one that had been exploited immediately. Just what kind of monster _was _this guy!? Any more close calls like that and he'd be finished before backup even _arrived_, but luckily he wouldn't be left alone for long. He could already hear his second in command barking out orders over their linked communication network as the rest of his currently active sidekicks converged on his location. It wouldn't be long now.

Until suddenly, he slumped bonelessly onto the pavement.

He—he couldn't move a muscle!

Something was _wrong._

Why couldn't he _move?!_

Every desperate command his brain sent to his limbs were ignored, as if he were a puppet that'd had all its strings cut.

It…it had to be Stain's quirk… that was the only explanation that made sense. But _knowing_ that and escaping whatever ability had ensnared him were two vastly different directives, and what had previously seemed like such a brief amount of time he'd needed to stall, had suddenly transformed into an eternity. A harrowing stretch of time that he'd be completely at the hero killer's mercy.

Those twenty-something previous victims of the man suddenly seemed so much more _real_ to Tensei in that moment, as he realized that he could quite possibly be adding to that statistic _very_ soon.

He'd always imagined his final moments either in old age, surrounded by friends and family, or dying heroically in a blaze of glory after saving the lives of his precious citizens. Not face down in some random alleyway, nostrils filled with the stench of whatever garbage and who-knows what else that stained the dirty concrete.

Slow, booted steps approached his position, mockingly relaxed in their cadence, until finally, they stopped less than a meter away. A steel toe dug into his shoulder, flipping Tensei face up and giving him the first uninterrupted glimpse of the man who'd rendered him so helpless.

Cruel, crimson irises glared down at him, and a long—_far _too long—tongue snaked over chapped lips, exposing long rows of even, surprisingly-white, teeth.

Tensei glared right back, though the hero killer probably couldn't tell through his mask. "Well, _villain? _ Nothing to say!? Not going to gloat over your—".

The katana flashed out in the blink of an eye, descending in an instant, and Iida Tensei knew no more.

oooOo Chisome oOooo

The deed was done, and yet Stain felt no satisfaction from the act. The man was but a drop in the vast ocean of corruption. There were hundreds more heroes in Japan, and thousands all over the world that would be more than happy to take up the mantle of corrupt hero politics.

He _knew _that one man could never feasibly cull every corrupt hero singlehandedly, but perhaps the elimination of Ingenium, quite possibly the most _distinguished_ hero he'd slain to date, would spur the masses to take a closer look at these so called _bastions_ of society, rotting hero culture to the core.

From his vantage point several buildings away, Stain could already see the fallen hero's companions rush into the alley where he lay still. He could imagine their despair as they tried to resuscitate the man, futilely, of course… Stain had left survivors before, but this was not one of those instances. Ingenium would die today, and with him, his elitist, capitalist mentality.

"Quite impressive, Hero-killer… Your reputation precedes you…"

Stain wasted no time pondering how someone had managed to sneak up on someone as skilled and as paranoid as he, instead, his katana flashed out towards the perceived threat, sinking into a substance that offered no resistance whatsoever.

The voice, originating from a swirling vortex of black and violet energy continued as if the blade posed no threat to him whatsoever, so Stain relaxed his posture marginally. His eyes, however, remained trained on the newcomer, ready and willing to respond accordingly to any sudden movement.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he rasped, withdrawing his katana from the gaseous substance.

The man—or so he assumed judging by his deep, echoing tone of voice—answered with a chuckle.

"It is not what I want from you, but what we could each do for the other…"

Stain scowled. "I'm not here to play games—"

"—This offer is not in jest, I assure you… Come, there is someone I think you should meet…"

The purple miasma suddenly swirled around him, obscuring the light of day, before swallowing him into the darkness.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

_"C'mon, _nerd, I can't be the only one itchin' to see if this shit lives up to the hype!"

Izuku sighed as he paced down the flight of stairs leading to the north stadium entrance. The intermission between the first and second tournament rounds was coming to a close, and once again he was slated as the opening match.

It was something he had no problem with. As much as he enjoyed watching his classmates strut their stuff during their matches—not to mention the extra data on all their quirks he'd managed to collect—he was ready and raring to get out in the ring again himself.

No, that was not the issue at hand…

"_Seriously,_ don't you _feel_ any different? It's _All Might's _quirk for fuck's sake!" Katsumi shouted from his side. "All-Powerful, unbeatable! Kick-ass take no-fuckin'-names unadulterated _badass!" _Her fists swished through the air with every new descriptor. "Aren't you even a _little _curious?!"

It wasn't even _close_ to the first complaint she'd voiced in the last five minutes, though he couldn't quite blame her…

"I'm not even sure if I'm _supposed _to feel any different…" All Might was concerningly vague with his explanation if he were being honest with himself… "Besides," he said, hooking an arm over her shoulder and pulling her closer—he really loved doing that—"Like you said, it's _All Might's _quirk. You really think it'd be such a great idea to try it out for the first time on my _classmates?"_

Katsumi's face scrunched into a scowl, wordlessly conceding his point, until the expression morphed into one that was cause for concern.

"You've forgotten who you're matched up against in the next round, nerd! That b-lister with the shitty quicksteel knockoff has got a head harder than Kirishima's! It's like a fate or some shit! He's the _perfect_ sandbag!"

By this point her grin had shifted into something downright sadistic… and was she… drooling? Izuku would ignore that for now… But more importantly… there wasn't much he could say to refute her claim. Tetsutetsu, his next opponent, was, by all accounts, just as sturdy if as Izuku's _own _classmate. If he were being completely honest, this _was_ the best opportunity to test if One for All had taken root…

"Fine…" He sighed, as they reached the bottom of the staircase.

"_Fuck _yeah!" Katsumi growled, spinning in his grip so they were face to face. Her crimson irises seemed to shine even in the dim lighting of the tunnel. "Get out there and show em' what a _real_ elite looks like!"

"Got it." Izuku puffed out a gust of air before making to turn towards the end of the tunnel.

"Oh, and Deku—" He paused, turning back to where Katsumi stood grinning suspiciously. "Remember what All Might said…"

—_Smack!—_

"Don't forget to clench that ass, nerd!"

With the way his girlfriend's laughter echoed off the walls of the tunnel, Izuku just couldn't find it in himself to be upset as he walked away rubbing his stinging backside.

The north entrance to the stadium stood out quite clearly where the light from the open-top stadium shone through. He could already hear the roar of the crowd and Present Mic's over the top introductions to what he assumed was his own match.

Well… there was no point in making the fans wait any longer…

oooOoOoOooo

**"Are you _ready?!"_**

The answering roar was deafening. Apparently, the brief intermission had been too much to bear for the crowd, they seemed to exude anticipation, visibly leaning forward in their seats making certain they wouldn't miss a second of the coming action.

Izuku could only hope that he would live up to their expectations….

Tetsutetsu stood across from him, fists clenching and unclenching at either side of his solidly built frame. The animosity dripped off of him in waves as the unique markings around his eyes—were those his eyebrows?—pinched into a firm scowl.

All in all, he made for quite the intimidating sight, and if prematch posturing were all it took to bring in a victory, Izuku might have had his hands full. But fortunately, that was not the case. Not only was Izuku quite confident in his own abilities, unlike his match against Setsuna, Tetsutetsu's quirk and overall combat style were _not _unknown to him.

Barring any tricks that the 1-B student may have withheld in the first round, there shouldn't be any surprises.

That only left the issue of One for All…

Could he _really_ justify its use in this situation? Izuku was certain that he'd be able to take on his opponent without it… Hell, he wasn't in the habit of looking down on his competition, but his martial ability even without his _own _quirk could quite possibly be enough to take him down.

But the truth in Katsumi's earlier claim couldn't be denied, of all his possible future opponents this tournament, Tetsutetsu certainly fit the bill in terms of ability to tank a hit. But that scenario was under the assumption that Izuku's version of One for All would be identical to All Might's. The symbol of peace had been quite vague when describing how the quirk would manifest itself… He'd been vague about a lot of things, really. The was always an aspect of exponentially increased power, but One for All was practically a living thing itself, how that power would assert itself was the question…

_Power._ Such an ambiguous way to describe such a multifaceted ability… Even All Might who, due to his quirkless nature—and hadn't _that_ been a surprise—utilized One for All in arguably the most straightforward manner possible to boost his already inhuman strength, speed, stamina… well, the list went on and on… The point was, for a quirk to enhance all those traits of someone without a quirk to begin with… He couldn't truly imagine the implications of what AfO might do to his _own _body.

Izuku chuckled under his breath. All Might… despite not having spoken to him since he'd passed on his quirk earlier that day, Izuku knew for a fact he would be watching. _He _of all people would certainly be expecting to see his quirk in action, and that was the final nail in the coffin for Izuku's deliberation. That, and the red-hot stare he could feel on his back from the tunnel behind him. It wouldn't do to disappoint Kacchan, now would it?

**"It's the undefeated golden boy from 1-A who's been carving his way through the competition all day!" **Present mic cried from the announcer booth. **"He's taken a couple spills along the way, but remained largely undefeated so far in this competition! Give it up for _Midoriyaaaa Izukuuuuuu!"_**

With a grin, Izuku decided to play to the crowd a bit. He quickly wrestled control over his quicksteel, morphing it into a massive hand that mirrored his own, and waved it overhead to the cheering fans. They went wild as he'd hoped, but quickly wondered if it'd been such a great idea upon hearing some of the more explicit things shouted by a few female fans. He wasn't sure whether to worry for his own safety or theirs…

A glance over his shoulder to see the seething glare directed at certain individuals in the crowd gave him his answer. _Theirs, _definitely theirs…

**"Aaand his opponent! Taking down his fellow classmate in the first round, it's the man of many names, or maybe just one! The iron dynamo himself, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu!"**

The crowd responded appropriately, though perhaps not with the same amount of vigor as his own introduction.

The hero hopeful standing opposite Izuku slammed his fists together with a sparking clang, his mouth stretching into a shark-toothed grin, his pinprick pupils met Izuku's own steady gaze, blazing with determination.

Unfortunately for Tetsutetsu, Izuku couldn't let that admirable determination bear fruit…

**"BEGIN!"**

Tetsutetsu immediately rushed Izuku's position as he knew the boy would. Everything from his posture to his speech screamed straightforward and earnest, the steel-bodied student had employed the same tactics in his previous match, and nothing had given any indication that he would switch things up now.

Izuku, who of course was ready to counter the sudden charge, danced to the side of the full-body tackle employed by his opponent—incidentally the same one he'd used to conclude his previous match—and slammed a quicksteel-coated shin up and into the boy's exposed torso. The force of the sudden blow seemed to rattle the boy to his core, as well as providing just enough lift to lead into Izuku's followup. With a heavily practiced motion, Izuku pivoted on his left leg and snapped out a devastating roundhouse kick that slammed into his opponent's suspended body.

The crowd roared at the sudden clash as Tetsutetsu was sent rolling, skidding to a halt several meters away. Izuku's eye's widened slightly. Not only was it far less distance than he'd have expected given the amount of power he'd purposefully put behind his strike, but the hero-hopeful had already planted his first to the arena floor in an effort to regain his footing.

A grin tugged involuntarily at Izuku's lips. For someone who normally preferred to sit back and observe his opponents, that opener was a significant deviation from his ordinary approach to a one on one battle. However, he'd wanted to be certain that he hadn't been misinformed about Tetsutetsu's durability.

He wasn't. The 1-B student already regaining—albeit shakily—his normal fighting stance, confirmed that he'd been correct, and perhaps even undersold the boy's vitality.

Well then… how much punishment _could_ he take…

oooOo Tetsutetsu oOooo

He'd been raring and ready to take that cocky 1-A asshole down a couple pegs when he made his initial charge…

That had been his first mistake…

The kick—at least, Tetsutetsu _thought_ it was a kick, his head was _still_ spinning after all—seemingly came out of nowhere, and had handily sent him rag dolling across the arena floor.

Tetsutetsu had _never_ been hit that hard before… Not even Kendo, who had no qualms about going all-out during the frequent spars, had _ever _sent his head spinning _that _badly. He was made of _metal _for god's sake! And this cocky bastard had tossed him around like a backpack after one of Ectoplasm's calculus lectures…

Ironically, Tetsutetsu's head felt awfully similar to how it usually did after one of those lessons, but after a moment of struggle, he finally managed to get his feet back under him and straighten up into a relatively stable stance. A _heavy _puff of air left his lungs as he raised his eyes back up to an opponent that he was quickly reassessing his opinion of.

He'd of course heard the rumors of a promising first-year student in particular that'd become the class representative of 1-A, but since the guy had apparently been injured during the villain attack and had been conspicuously absent when they'd all gone to check out the competition before the sports festival, Tetsutetsu had written them off as just that: rumors.

Oh, the way the audience fawned over this kid's every move still pissed him off to no end, Tetsutetsu doubted that _that _would ever change… But he was beginning to consider the fact that all the hype surrounding class 1-A's golden boy may not have been all for show…

He'd been focused on recovering points for his own team after Midoriya ambushed them in the previous event, but he'd have _had_ to be blind to miss those cocky 1-A bastards tossing around ice and exploding shit above the heads of the rest of the contestants.

He'd initially written it off as simply the nature of flashy quirks like theirs, but after Midoriya had taken out Setsuna, who was objectively 1-B's best fighter, in the first round, he was beginning to have his doubts… And the sheer _force_ behind the two hits he'd just taken himself? Well… In combat there was nothing better than first-hand experience…

He straightened his stance, raising his fists into the classic peekaboo boxer's stance that Kendo had taught him earlier in the semester. He'd found her claims of _'you can't always rely on brute force, dummy!'_ sort of a bother at the time, but against the freaks of nature that he'd seen glimpses of in this competition, maybe a little bit of defense wouldn't do much harm…

But that didn't mean he couldn't go all out! It was Kendo-san that he'd defeated to get to this point! How could he face her if he went out so easily in the first round!?

Tetsutetsu kept his eyes on his opponent, recognizing the real threat that the boy—despite his stupid floofy hair and unassuming stare—posed to him. As much as he'd much prefer to wail into the guy and give him something to _really _be concerned about, he kept his guard up and waited, ignoring the way the crowd jeered, eager for another exchange of blows after such an explosive start to the fight.

The moment that Midoriya realized Tetsutetsu wouldn't be making another charge was obvious, as the boy began a casual approach. The taller boy bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, strafing slightly as he closed the distance between the two of them, that odd metallic quirk of his whipping back and forth at his side. But there was something… else…

The approach was predatory… _lithe. _Like a jungle cat that was certain that its prey was beyond the point of fleeing.

Tetsutetsu's heart hammered in his chest, his limbs shook as an unfamiliar sensation wracked his frame. His quirk prevented certain ordinary bodily functions while active, but he certainly _felt _like sweat would be beading on his forehead were that not the case. He gulped audibly, a token effort at choking down the lump that had seemed to form in his throat. It was almost as if his body subconsciously knew the danger it was in and was doing all it possibly could to avoid the situation.

His eyes flicked down to his metallic fists to ground himself, powering through the near-debilitating fear that had nearly overcome him. They'd never failed to protect him before, he simply had to trust in them as he usually did.

His eyes flashed back up to an empty stadium.

_Wait. _Empty? Where did he—.

The thought was immediately cut off as a fist cracked into the side of his jaw, his head snapping to the side from the impact, nearly making him lose his painstakingly gathered composure once more.

But Tetsutetsu was expecting the power behind Midoriya's strike's this time. He recovered quickly, throwing a jab that the green-haired boy dodged with a swift duck of the head. That was no surprise, with how absurdly fast the bastard had dashed to his side, it was no wonder that he could dodge a punch. But Tetsutetsu wouldn't let something like _that _stop him!

Another jab with his left followed by a right hook were thrown into the mix, each avoided just as easily as the first. Tetsutetsu's world was suddenly yanked at a ninety-degree tilt as his legs were swept by an intricate looking maneuver that he doubted he'd _ever _be able to emulate with his powerful, but admittedly bulky frame.

He slammed into the concrete of the arena floor, eyes shooting wide at the sight of a glinting metallic heel descending towards his downed form. He managed to raise his arms in a cross block, grunting slightly as the relentless assault from his opponent was halted, however briefly.

**"WOW! Midoriya shows no mercy to his opponent, hammering blow after blow into Tetsutetsu's formidable defense!" **Present Mic cried from the announcer booth. ** "Is this what you came here for, Folks?! Yeaahhh!"**

The fans echoed his shout, whipped into a frenzy by the excitable announcer.

**"Midoriya doesn't seem to be holding back too much, it seems he's acknowledged his opponent's strength…"**

The answering drawl seemed to come from Aizawa, who Tetsutetsu recalled was 1-A's homeroom teacher.

Well, at least he could count on the opinion to be credible enough, but he wasn't quite sure how much that would help him when he already seemed so heavily outmatched…

Tetsutetsu, as quickly as he could manage, gripped Midoriya's ankle where it had impacted his guard. The falling axe kick might have knocked him out had it landed, but since he'd blocked the initial damage, the technique left the attack wide open to a counterattack.

At least on a _normal _opponent it would have…

The odd metal substance coating Midoriya's leg suddenly lost all its tension, not only allowing the boy to slip out of his grip and flip away from danger, but also latched around his own hand and flung him bodily towards the other end of the arena.

Tetsutetsu skidded to a stop, head spinning once more, and wondering for the first time whether it would be in everybody's best interest to _stay down_ for once.

Well, that may have been the _smartest _decision, but no one had ever accused Tetsutetsu of being a genius…

He struggled to his feet once more, wobbling slightly, but overall, still capable of moving.

His fists slammed together threateningly. "Cmon, asshole! You think that's all it's gonna take to put _me _down!? Get that weak shit outta here!"

Loosely practiced technique obviously wasn't gonna do him any favors here, but at least he had his guts to rely on! Tetsutetsu began another charge, one clanking footstep at a time.

oooOo Izuku oOooo

How much punishment could he take?

A _lot_.

It wasn't long before _that _was made perfectly apparent.

Of course, anyone watching would most likely be able to pick apart the vast disparity in their technical skill.

Tetsutetsu was a brawler, straight and simple. His punches were formidable, they certainly had power behind them, that's for sure. But they were telegraphed, easy enough for someone as agile as Izuku to weave around and often led to counters that inflicted more damage than the original punch would have in the first place.

He rarely mixed up any kicks into his attacks, which made Izuku think that it wasn't an aspect of martial arts that he'd spent any significant amount of time learning. It only made his attack patterns even easier to predict.

And yet he kept _coming_…

Izuku had grown up with _Kacchan _for god's sake_. _He _knew_ the definition of tenacious when he saw it. No disrespect meant to his girlfriend, but Izuku might even say that Tetsutetsu had _her_ beat in this regard…

It was with that realization that his mindset changed.

Tetsutetsu was no longer the 'safe' option to test One for All on. No, he was a worthy opponent that _deserved_ to have it used on him. Izuku smirked… Not that the boy would ever be privy to the significance of whatever happened next.

Izuku met his opponent's next charge head-on, lowering his center of gravity slightly to flip him overhead, slamming him bodily into the concrete. He deftly leapt a way to create a bit of distance between the two as the crowd groaned in sympathy for the guy.

Izuku didn't blame them; he'd been quite brutal up to this point…

A glance at the downed figure of Tetsutetsu and an audible moan told him that the boy would be a bit slower getting up this time, giving Izuku the respite he needed to concentrate properly. And so, for the first time since that fight had begun, he closed his eyes…

It wouldn't surprise him if One for All was fundamentally different from using his own quirk, but unfortunately for him it was the only frame of reference he had for using such an esoteric skill... Despite Kacchan's wholehearted support of All Might's 'clench your buttocks' strategy, Izuku had a feeling that a different approach might prove more effective… For him at least…

So, he looked within… for that same sensation he associated with various aspects of his connection with quicksteel. For that odd, superhuman quality that had become all but ordinary to anyone born in the modern era.

One that was similar to his own… but distinctly foreign.

The clanking steps of Tetsutetsu nagged at his ears and for a moment, Izuku feared he would have to abandon his attempt and return his attention to the battle, until suddenly, he felt it…

A spark. One that once felt, immediately swirled and surged into a raging inferno, so vastly different than the smooth, metallic tang of his quicksteel, and yet decidedly the same.

A quirk…

_The _quirk.

"Think you can win so freakin' easily that you can close your eyes?! _Huh_, buddy?!"

Izuku ignored Tetsutetsu's taunts in favor of _tugging_ lightly at the foreign power that swirled at his core, and One for All responded, seemingly latching onto his original quirk of its own accord and immediately making its presence known.

Izuku's eyes flashed open, every one of his senses kicking into overdrive. The scent of ozone filled his nostrils, the tips of his fingers tingled like acid in his veins. The roars of the crowd buffeted his eardrums, that same metallic tang manifesting on the tip of his tongue.

But drowning out the rest was his quicksteel, back in it's spherical form and hovering just at eye level. The orb crackled with barely restrained energy, verdant electricity arcing along its metallic surface in a dazzling display of power.

To what end, Izuku had no idea, but he was certainly about to find out as whatever miniscule amount of control he'd had over the mounting energy snapped in an instant.

The air itself seemed bend around his quirk as an unseen force expanded outward. Izuku braced himself for impact, but was curiously unaffected…

The same could not be said, however, for his opponent.

Tetsutetsu, who, in a moment of either admirable fearlessness or utter stupidity—Izuku wasn't sure which—had charged straight towards his location in a last-ditch effort to secure a win. He was thwarted immediately as Izuku's attack reached critical mass.

The boy's frame seemed to stop on a dime, freezing, suspended mid-stride, before his trajectory was suddenly reversed. At an _exponentially_ faster velocity than he'd started…

Tetsutetsu positively _whistled _through the air, his steel body zipping across the length of the arena like a massively oversized bullet. He _slammed_ with a sickening crunch into the reinforced concrete stadium wall. Spidery cracks arced away from the point of impact, his steel frame remaining embedded in the concrete—at least until the boy lost consciousness, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head, steel skin fading back to its natural flesh tone.

Izuku remained standing in place, huffing out great lungfuls of air as his mind raced to figure out _what the actual shit _had just happened…

**"M—Midoriya wins!" **Midnight cried suddenly, before immediately waving over the emergency responders that were on call for precisely this sort of situation.

Izuku's initial concern was that his fellow student didn't retain any lasting injuries. But that was before he registered the damage to his own body…

His vision spun, and as if the world had suddenly tilted on its axis, he was overcome with a violent sense of vertigo. The roaring crowd faded to a muted hum, and a tentative touch at the shell of his ear had his fingers coming away red. Whatever unknown ability One for All had unlocked within his body had clearly come at a cost.

The horizon tilted once more, only this time it wasn't his perception, but his body physically collapsing to the ground.

The last thing his mind registered as his vision faded to black was Katsumi rushing to his side, her normally harsh features stricken with concern.

Ah, damn. He'd made her worry again, hadn't he?

**AN: Well, there you go! A hint of Metallurgy Izuku's OFA that is about as vague as All Might explanation… I promise it will eventually make sense, and perhaps some of you can puzzle some of it out from the events of this chapter, but we'll see! **

**Please no complaints about how I decided to go about this, I recognize that everyone has their own opinion, but I promise you that I've already agonized for _months_ over how OFA would effect Izuku and his natural quirk and I've finally settled one something I'm somewhat happy with, and that fits properly into the already established power scale of the story. (You haven't seen everything yet.)**

**Until next time!**


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